There have been 36 confirmed cases of patients infected with MERS virus in South Korea, according to Reuters.
As a third death was reported this week, more than 900 schools have shut down in the country due to public fear over the largest outbreak of MERS outside of Saudi Arabia, according to the publication HindustanTimes.
“We are taking actions to prevent spread of the disease. But I don’t think citizens should be excessively fearful,” Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon told a news conference.
Despite the words of the mayor, increasing public concern is evident in the growing number of commuters reportedly seen wearing face masks on buses and subways. The South Korean government’s MERS hotline reportedly took more than 3,000 calls on Wednesday alone.
1,565 people who attended a May 30 meeting for a redevelopment project were reportedly asked to undergo voluntary quarantine by Seoul officials after learning that a doctor initially diagnosed with MERS on June 1 had attended the event.
Some people have reportedly been quarantined at home while others have been put in medical institutions.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye reportedly demanded that every measure be taken to stop the outbreak, which began two weeks ago after a South Korean man returned from a business trip to the Middle East.
As news of the outbreak began circulating, about 7,000 people from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan reportedly canceled trips to South Korea as of June 2, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.
From the five new South Korean cases that were reported Thursday, two were reportedly health workers who treated infected patients.
“We are in a war,” stated an official at a health center in Gangnam.