S. Koreans quarantined for MERS in Hong Kong, China to be released

Fourteen South Korean citizens who have been quarantined in Hong Kong and China for exposure to MERS were set to complete their quarantine periods and be discharged from hospitals, a South Korean official said Tuesday.
  

They have been under quarantine at hospitals in Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong after making contact with a 44-year-old South Korean man who flew to Hong Kong on May 26, a day after his father was diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in South Korea.
   

The Korean man, who subsequently went to Guangdong by bus, has been treated under isolation at the Huizhou Municipal Central Hospital in Guangdong.
  

The 14 Korean citizens will be discharged from hospitals on Tuesday and Wednesday, the official at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing said on the condition of anonymity.
  

On Monday, Hong Kong advised its citizens not to travel to South Korea.
  

South Korea reported its first MERS case on May 20. So far, a total of 95 MERS cases have been reported in South Korea and seven people have died of the virus.
  

MERS is a viral respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012, according to the World Health Organization.
  

The virus, which causes a fever, cough and shortness of breath, has infected more than 1,100 people and more than 400 people have died from it, WHO said. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the virus. (Yonhap)