The coronavirus is talking about it again. In South Korea it is said to have caused the deaths of two people, a 58-year-old woman and a 71-year-old man. According to the South Korean Ministry of Health, the woman is my first recorded fatal victim in the country. She died late Monday evening of acute respiratory failure. She had tested positive for the MERS coronavirus, also known as the Middle East respiratory syndrome virus. The second victim, the septuagenarian, would have tested positive on May 28, but the day of his death is not known.
South Korean authorities are on the alert as it is estimated that at least 25 people have been infected with the virus. The respiratory syndrome virus would have been “imported” by a first patient who returned to the country in mid-April from a trip to the Middle East, including two days in Saudi Arabiaaccording to the Yonhap news agency. The man and his wife had been taken to a Seoul hospital without hospital staff immediately identifying the coronavirus.
Nearly 700 people who could have been exposed directly or indirectly to the virus have been placed in quarantine.
Late reactions
The country’s health authorities are criticized for reacting too late in the diagnosis of the first infected patients. A negligence that would have allowed one of them to go to China last week. He will be diagnosed positive once in China. He is suspected of having infected 80 Chinese in spite of himself.
As the South Korean government seeks to reassure the population, concern is felt. Some companies like the automaker Hyundai have asked its employees to forgo travel to the Middle East for the time being, according to Les Echos.
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