By Kim Se-jeong
The government will announce early next week that Korea is virtually free from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) epidemic, according to officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Prime Minister’s Office, Friday.
It will hold a meeting next Tuesday to urge the public to “return to their normal lives.”
“The number of people in isolation will be zero on July 27,” a ministry official said. “The prime minister will convene a meeting and make a national address telling citizens that there’s no threat of MERS anymore.”
But, it will not be an official declaration of the outbreak’s end, because one patient has still tested positive for the deadly virus which killed 36 people in Korea.
The World Health Organization earlier recommended Seoul make the MERS-free announcement 28 days after the final patient’s recovery, twice the virus’ incubation period of 14 days. According to the recommendation, the official end of the epidemic may be in the latter half of next month.
“It will take too long before the official end. We think that before then, we need to give people a message that they don’t need to worry anymore,” the official said.