President Park Geun-hye visited a hospital housing MERS patients here Friday to encourage health care workers striving to contain the disease, Cheong Wa Dae said.
She was also briefed about the latest update on the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome at the National Medical Center, a state-designated hospital, where the patients are quarantined.
The visit underscored the urgency in combating the virus that has killed four South Koreans and sparked a widespread public scare across the country.
Earlier this week, she presided over a meeting with infectious disease experts at the presidential office over the latest disease that has hit the country.
“Currently, MERS is a top priority,” presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook told reporters.
On Thursday, a 76-year-old patient died from MERS, bringing to four the total number of deaths from the virus. The Ministry for Health and Welfare reported five new cases on Friday, raising the total to 41.
The presidential office said it is deeply concerned about rising public anxiety following an announcement by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon late Thursday that a Seoul doctor came into contact with more than 1,000 citizens before he was confirmed as a MERS patient.
Deputy Prime Minister Hwang Woo-yea, who doubles as education minister, called on the government to strengthen the quarantines and make utmost efforts to allay public concerns over the MERS virus.
Also Friday, police said suspected patients will be forcibly quarantined at hospitals if they defy house quarantine.
Medical experts have said the virus cannot be spread to people unless they come into close contact with MERS patients or the medical staff who treated them.
The experts have said it does not make sense for schools to cancel classes.
Still, more than 1,160 schools had canceled classes across the country as a precaution as of 9 a.m. The vast majority of the total, or 764 schools, are in Gyeonggi Province, where the first case of MERS in South Korea was reported, according to the Ministry of Education.
MERS is a viral respiratory illness that is new to humans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. It was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and has since spread to several other countries.
There currently is no vaccine or treatment for the disease.
Most people infected with MERS develop severe acute respiratory illness, including fever, cough and shortness of breath. Many of them have died. (Yonhap)
