South Korea's health authorities said Wednesday they have confirmed two more cases of Influenza A, raising the number of people infected with the virus here to 29.
According to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, a male English teacher from South Africa and a Korean woman were newly confirmed to have been infected with the H1N1 virus.
The 30-year-old English teacher worked at the same language institute where a total of 19 English teachers, mostly foreigners, had been found to be infected until Tuesday, Yonhap News Agency said.
He has been isolated for observation along with others who might have come into contact with those infected colleagues.
The ministry added that the 22-year-old Korean woman reported to authorities voluntarily after recently returning from the U.S. due to flu-like symptoms.
South Korea had been considered relatively insulated from the highly contagious virus until last week, with just four confirmed cases reported since last month.
Separately, the ministry said that it is examining two other suspected cases of the new flu. The people under observation were Koreans who returned from the U.S. earlier in the day.
According to the latest tally by the World Health Organization (WHO), 46 countries have officially reported 12,954 cases of Influenza A infection, including 92 deaths. All deaths have occurred in Mexico, the United States, Canada and Costa Rica.