(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) With 30 infections and counting, South Korea's first brush with the respiratory disease MERS continued to take its toll Wednesday.
No country aside from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has seen more cases of the illness that only emerged in 2012.
But with the disease's fatality rate of around 40 percent based on more than 1,150 infections worldwide, Seoul was scrambling to contain its outbreak - which began late last month when a man was diagnosed after returning from the Middle East.
Since then, a woman in her 50s and a man in his 70s have passed away. Worryingly, health officials also informed the media that three of the latest cases were tertiary infections, meaning that the spread has moved beyond the original patient.
In response to local claims that the World Health Organization was to send a rapid response team of epidemiologists to South Korea, a WHO communications officer told Anadolu Agency that the organization was "ready to respond" if called upon.
An education ministry spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that as of 11 a.m. (0300GMT), 230 schools were effectively shut down nationwide - predominantly in the Gyeonggi province area surrounding Seoul.
The defense ministry also announced that soldiers were being asked not to take leave or to welcome visitors in order to protect barracks in the country, where military service for able-bodied young men is mandatory.
But any reservists who have recently visited the Middle East were permitted to postpone training activities.
The economic impact of South Korea's MERS outbreak was also being weighed Wednesday, as local stocks fell for a third session in a row.
Amid concern over a dip in tourists from China - a little over a decade after it was hit by SARS - authorities there were taking their own precautionary measures after a South Korean man managed to travel to the country via Hong Kong before testing positive for MERS.
Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have placed nearly 90 people in quarantine - though that number is still much lower than the more than 1,300 being kept in isolation in South Korea.
Like SARS, MERS is caused by a strain of coronavirus - it remains to be seen whether the South Korean outbreak has seen a mutation.
President Park Geun-hye admitted earlier this week that her country's initial efforts to contain the disease had been "insufficient."
By Alex Jense
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