WHO team urges RoK to reopen schools as more close in MERS crisis
A joint RoK-World Health Organization mission studying an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) recommended on June 10 that schools be reopened, as they were unlikely to spread the disease, just as school boards recommended more be shut.
The Republic of Korea's Health Ministry said on June 9 two more people had died from MERS and announced 13 new cases, lifting the total number of patients to 108 and prompting President Park Geun-hye to postpone a visit to the United States.
Park had been due to leave for the United States, her country's closest ally, on June 7. Her office said the coming week would be a "watershed" for the country's response to the disease.
The outbreak, the largest outside Saudi Arabia, has fuelled public anxiety and hit spending, with thousands in quarantine and the number of schools closing rising to 2,474, including 22 universities. Many people on the streets are wearing face masks, public transport is being disinfected and attendance at movie theatres and baseball games has tumbled.
But the joint mission, which began its work on June 9, urged the government to consider reopening schools.
The recommendation came as the school boards of Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi province announced the extension of existing school closures through Friday and recommended more to shut.
First identified in humans in 2012, MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered China's deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). There is no cure or vaccine.
The main Incheon airport said the number of passenger arrivals was down sharply on June 8-9.
Taiwan's two biggest airlines are temporarily cutting flights to the RoK by nearly half. Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said it had seen a drop in bookings to the RoK.
WHO has not recommended any curbs on travel or trade.