The condition of China's first MERS patient is stable, authorities said today as they continued their search for 10 more people who had come into contact with him, a day after isolating 82 others for possible infection.
Concerns over the spread of the deadly virus in the country were raised after a 44-year-old South Korean man, who flew into Hong Kong, tested positive for the deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in Guangdong on Friday.
He is receiving medical treatment in Huizhou City and his condition is stated to be stable, the provincial health and family planning commission said today.
The patient is, however, still feverish, they said.
Meanwhile, the commission yesterday increased the number of people who had been in contact with the patient to 77 in Guangdong alone. Of them, 67 have been quarantined while 10 bus passengers are yet to be found as of presstime.
As many as 82 people have already been isolated in total.
Hong Kong has quarantined 18 people, including two South Korean women, despite their reluctance as they had travelled with the MERS patient in the same plane.
None of those quarantined are showing any symptoms of the deadly infection, a respiratory illness caused by a new type of corona virus.
The patient, despite showing symptoms of the viral illness back home, ignored doctors' advice and travelled to Hong Kong. He later entered Huizhou City via Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province, state-run Xinhua news agency said.
There is no vaccine or treatment for the disease, which has a fatality rate reaching 40.7 per cent and whose first case was identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, where more than 400 have been killed. Over 20 countries have been affected.
