South Korea removes last person from quarantine over Mers

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South Korea removes last person from quarantine over Mers

PUBLISHED : Monday, 27 July, 2015, 11:52am
UPDATED : Monday, 27 July, 2015, 9:54pm

Associated Press

Hospital workers wear face masks at the lobby of Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul. Photo: AFP

South Korean health authorities said on Monday they lifted the at-home quarantine for a suspected case of infection with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) coronavirus, leaving no one subject to isolation over Mers for the first time in over two months.

The South Korean Health and Welfare Ministry said that as of Monday, 12 people remain hospitalized for Mers but only one of them has still tested positive for the coronavirus.

With no new case of the disease reported in more than three weeks, the South Korean government is planning to tell its people Tuesday that the Mers outbreak has effectively ended, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Based on the World Health Organisation’s standards that call for a four-week waiting period after the last Mers patient fully recovers, the formal declaration of the end of the outbreak in South Korea is expected to be made in late August.

Since the first case of Mers infection was confirmed May 20 in the country, 186 people were found to be infected, 36 of them died and a total of about 16,000 people had been subject to quarantine.