Kingdom, South Korea see no MERS letup

RIYADH/SEOUL: MERS claimed the life of a 77-year-old Saudi man in Hofuf on Friday. Since June 2012, the number of MERS cases has reached 1,030 — 568 recoveries, 453 deaths and nine under treatment in the Kingdom.
South Korea reported three more deaths from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, but health officials urged people to go about their normal daily activities, saying the rate of new cases was slowing.
In what has become the largest outbreak of the virus outside Saudi Arabia, a 72-year-old woman died after being infected by a MERS patient at a hospital, the Korean Health Ministry said.
Two more fatalities were reported later — both men in their 70s who had come in contact with a MERS patient — bringing the country's total to 13 dead, Yonhap news agency said.
The number of new cases, however, fell to four, down from 14 on Thursday, bringing to 126 the total number of people in South Korea diagnosed with the virus.
Currently, 3,680 people are under quarantine, down from 3,805. A total of 1,249 people have been released from quarantine, including 294 on Friday.
“The number of newly confirmed cases has fallen sharply and there are little risks of the virus spreading through airborne transmissions or to communities outside hospital settings,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Therefore, we ask the people to conquer their fear and engage in day-to-day business,” it said.
The World Health Organization said Friday it would soon call an emergency meeting on the deadly coronavirus.
WHO's “emergency committee will meet soon” to discuss the crisis, spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva, without specifying a date.
He stressed that “the number of new cases is decreasing,” but warned: “we have to monitor the situation.”
MERS symptoms range from flu-like aches and pains to pneumonia and kidney failure.

— With input from agencies