CRI听力:S Korea Confirms 5 More MERS Infection Cases

South Korean authorities have confirmed five additional cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome have been confirmed in the country.

The emergence of the deadly virus in South Korea has prompted wide-scale quarantines.

CRI's Sophie William has more.

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Kwon Jun-wook with the South Korean Health Ministry says the emergence of the new cases follows on the heels of the deaths of two of the victims.

"We confirmed 5 more cases of MERS. So, there are total 30 cases of MERS including 2 victims."

The first two deaths from MERS in South Korea were confirmed on Tuesday.

It's being reported health authorities in South Korea are also conducting tests on an elderly patient who died on Sunday after sharing the same hospital ward with one of the two MERS-infected people who has died.

Kwon Jun-wook says at this point they believe the elderly woman died of an existing illness.

"We have seen that she died because of bacterial pneumonia which caused septicemia. We are conducting tests now."

South Korea has quarantined or isolated around 13-hundred people who may have been exposed to the MERS virus.

Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo says they're doing their best to try to control the spread of the virus.

"We will keep the infectious disease crisis alert level as "the cautious-level" at this point, and we will also take strong countermeasures. First, we will try to figure out all the people who contacted the first confirmed patient, divide them in the order of priority after analysis, and will quarantine anyone over age 50 in a facility, while the remaining patients will be quarantined in their homes."

Classes are also being cancelled in around 200 schools in the Seoul area.

The MERS virus began spreading in South Korea last month after a 68-year old man returned from a trip to the Middle East.

MERS itself was first identified in humans in 2012 in Saudi Arabia.

It's a corona virus similar to SARS.

MERS has a mortality rate of around 40-percent.

There is no vaccine or cure for the disease at this point.

For CRI, I'm Sophie William