By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korea effectively declared an end to its MERS outbreak Tuesday, as Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn called on citizens to resume their ordinary lives.
While the flu-like illness has claimed 36 local lives since the country’s first case in late May, no new infections have been announced for more than three weeks.
“Medical personnel and the government judge that people can now be free from worry,” Hwang said in front of reporters at a government meeting.
The prime minister only took up his position during the outbreak, but sitting alongside him was former acting PM Choi Kyung-hwan – who had been a prominent figure dressed in protective overalls at the height of public panic.
Still, Hwang apologized for the government’s initial failure to contain the disease and “for causing worries and discomfort.”
The virus had been unfamiliar to most locals before this year, though its relation SARS swept through Asia more than a decade ago – MERS was first recognized in humans as recently as 2012.
It was brought to South Korea by a 68-year-old man returning from a trip to the Middle East, and spread across the nation in days via hospital transmissions.
Residents and tourists alike shied away from visiting public spaces, and spending, when the outbreak reached its peak with more than 20 new cases being unveiled daily at one stage last month.
But life has already been visibly returning to normal, helped along by official and unofficial efforts to draw in visitors and boost domestic demand. An interest rate cut was at least partly blamed on MERS, while an extra budget has also just been passed to cope with the fallout.
A de facto end to the virus in South Korea had not been expected until this weekend. Tuesday’s announcement, however, is unlikely to sway the World Health Organization, which will only be satisfied with a 28-day MERS-free period after the last case has been resolved.
As of the health ministry’s latest briefing, all but one of 12 remaining patients have tested negative – and nine of them are now in general wards.
