Chosun Ilbo
Half of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) patients were found to have been infected in hospitals' emergency rooms. Far from being spacious with beds closely next to each other and patients quarantined for uncomfortably long time, the rooms’ conditions were somehow a cause of spreading the virus.
: North Korea suffers the worst draught in a century. Eighty percent of rice fields in South Hwanghae Province, a major rice producing region in the state, have dried. Other countries eye at the state to see how the climate will affect the state’s politicking.
JoongAng Ilbo
: Park Gyu-tae, 37, the 138th patient of MERS, left hospital after seven day-long hospitalization, the shortest it has taken a MERS patient to recover. A Samsung Medical Center doctor, Park said he received a treatment at an early phase of his infection. Those infected with the virus and trying to hide it until the last second will only suffer worsened symptoms and longer hospitalization, he emphasized.
: Strategy and Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said that he will promptly prepare plans for the nation’s economical boost in the second-half. MERS has caused significant damages to the nation’s economy, driving citizens to spend less, and the government will counteract to the situation, providing financial supports no matter how much it costs, he added.
DongA Ilbo
: Experts said ahead of the nation’s Foreign Minister Yun Byeong-se’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Japan on Monday, that Abe’s scheduled statement in August will only serve to Japanese conservatives if he doesn’t apologize for Japan’s war crimes during the World War II.
: The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has proved its ineptness in dealing with the nations’ MERS fiasco, paying more attention to satisfying government officials than providing effective solutions. It is contrasting in comparison with the U.S.’s CDC, which reacts to similar disease spreads in a more prompt fashion.
Hankyoreh
the nation stumbled on the heels of MERS fiasco partly because the nation’s “common infrastructure” across the nation’s regions didn’t exist. With profit-seeking government and hospitals failing to rein in the virus’ spread and being irresponsible with the patients, the fiasco must be a starting point to strengthen the public medical service.
: The government is setting up an investigative team to clear up the incident of the U.S. military in Korea bringing in an anthrax sample to the nation. The main opposition party demanded the U.S. apologize for the incident and the ROK-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) be revised.