MERS Hits South Korea and Its Economy

According to zaobao.com’s report on 4 June, South Korea’s MERS continues to spread, the diagnosed patient has been increasing to 30 people, two died, and nearly 1,400 people were isolated.

On the 3rd June, South Korean President Park Geun-hye chaired an emergency meeting, listened to the report on the specific circumstances, required government departments to work closely with the experts in order to find effective countermeasures as soon as possible, completely eliminate the epidemic and restore social stability.

She stressed that, "Since the first confirmed case diagnosed in Korea after, the epidemic continued to spread during two weeks, there are two deaths, so that people feel extremely uneasy, in order to prevent the epidemic into continuing to spread, the authorities are analyzing the current situation and the corresponding programs after proper analysis of the current situation and the corresponding programs, which will be open to the public. "

On 3rd June, a 50-year-old woman, who was in the isolation and observation, went to play golf with her friends. At the news of that, health authorities urged people to be vigilant and cooperate with the government's prevention work.

At present, MERS caused panic in Seoul and surrounding areas. Customers declines at the major shopping malls, cinemas and other public places, making the business of the major shopping malls downward.

Korea National Tourism Organization said that due to the increasing patients, 2500 Chinese tourists originally planned to travel to Korea, then canceled the trip, which would cause a great impact on Korean tourism.

South Korea's economic research institutes pointed out that if MERS's influence continued to spread, the South Korea's economic growth rate in the second half of this year may decline from 3% to 2%.

The South Korean government urged people to wash their hands and go to the public places with a mask. Recent sales of masks online exploded seven times, a number of pharmaceutical factories’ shares also rose by 15%. (www.chinainout.com)