S. Korea’s Mers fears ease

Thousands of schools shut to stop spread of the disease in country reopen

suwon (South Korea) — Thousands of South Korean schools that were shut to stop the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) reopened on Monday as the country sought to return to normal, nearly four weeks into an outbreak that shows signs of slowing.

Five new cases were reported by the Health Ministry on Monday, taking the total to 150, the largest outbreak outside of Saudi Arabia. The ministry also said another patient infected with the Mers virus had become the 16th fatality.

But the number of new cases was sharply lower than daily rises that reached as high as 23 last week. The World Health Organisation ( WHO) said on Saturday the decline suggested that control measures were working.

First identified in humans in 2012, Mers is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered China’s deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars). There is no cure or vaccine. A hospital in Daejeon, 140km south of Seoul, stopped taking all new patients on Monday as a precaution after a nurse there was among those diagnosed with the virus, the fifth hospital to have shut down completely or in part.

All of the cases in what the WHO called a “large and complex” outbreak have been traced to healthcare facilities.

At least 440 schools remained closed on Monday, compared with the 2,900 that were shut on Friday.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, whose approval rating has been battered over the government’s response to Mers, urged people to return to normal.

“I ask the business community, anyone with a fever. The WHO last week recommended schools be reopened, saying they have not been linked to transmission of the virus in South Korea or elsewhere.

“The child’s mother and I both work, so I think it’s better for kids to be in school where there can be proper measures, rather than keeping them home,” said Bin Ko-ok, who brought her first-grader grandchild to school.

South Korea said more than 110,000 group tourists had called off visits since the start of the outbreak, and forecast that from June through August 820,000 fewer people would visit, at a cost of $900 million in lost potential revenue.

The trend is expected to continue through the summer, the culture ministry said. Chinese airlines were cutting back flight to South Korea, Xinhua news agency reported.

South Korea’s largest hypermarket chain, E-Mart Co Ltd , said online sales between June 1-11 had risen 63 per cent year-on-year, as people avoided stores, while No.2 Homeplus’s online sales between June 1-14 rose by 50 per cent. —

schools remain closed on Monday

out of 29,000