HEALTH-MERS/SOUTH KOREA-BASEBALL-PRESIDENT President visits hospital with MERS cases, outbreak shrinks baseball crowds

Record ID: 151243

  • Title: HEALTH-MERS/SOUTH KOREA-BASEBALL-PRESIDENT President visits hospital with MERS cases, outbreak shrinks baseball crowds
  • Date: 14th June 2015
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (JUNE 14, 2015) (REUTERS) CENTRAL TICKET OFFICE AT JAMSIL BASEBALL STADIUM IN SEOUL VARIOUS OF PEOPLE BUYING TICKETS AT TICKET OFFICE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE PASSING THROUGH TICKET CHECK-POINT WOMAN WEARING MASK WALKING VARIOUS OF PEOPLE USING HAND SANITISER PEOPLE WALKING INTO STADIUM
  • Embargoed: 29th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADNKN8QK3SI49IM7DX205T5DV5
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Fear in South Korea's capital over the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus shrunk crowds at a baseball game on Sunday (June 14) as President Park Geun-hye visited the Seoul National University Hospital where Middle MERS patients are being hospitalized.
    South Korea's Ministry of Health reported seven new cases on Sunday, taking the total to 145, as a 15th person died, an official in Busan city said.
    Just 10,155 spectators watched Sunday's baseball game at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium, between the NC Dinos and Dusan Bears, where the average is 17,031, according to official data.
    Many of the baseball fans watched the game wearing a mask.
    "I am concerned about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) but I really like watching a baseball game so I came here after wearing a mask as a preventative measure," 17-year-old Yoo Dae-dong said.
    Some fans though were not particularly concerned.
    "I am not that worried about it because there is no one infected with MERS around me, and I think that young people would not be easily infected," 26-year-old Kim Myung-san said.
    On arrival at the Seoul National University Hospital President Park looked around a tent which had been set up in front of the hospital building on May 31 for suspected MERS patients to get a health check-up. She also checked quarantine wards through a computer screen and had a phone call with a medical worker who was treating MERS patients in an isolation room.
    Park has called for an all-out national effort to eradicate the outbreak, which has been spreading since a 68-year-old businessman brought it home from a Middle East trip last month.
    The spread of the disease has stirred up public fear and confusion, prompting Park to postpone a visit to the United States, while health officials have been criticised over a lack of transparency and for failing to swiftly contain the spread.
    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called an emergency meeting for Tuesday (June 16) on South Korea's "large and complex" outbreak of MERS, the biggest outside Saudi Arabia, where it was first identified in humans in 2012.
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