Three new MERS cases reported in South Korea

Seoul

 South Korea reported three new cases of MERS on Sunday as health authorities remained alert about the outbreak that appeared to have slowed last week.

 Health ministry officials said that two medical workers are among those newly diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, taking the toll of those infected to 169.

 The two medical staff included a doctor who treated a MERS patient at Samsung Medical Centre and a medical worker who took X-rays of a MERS patient in another hospital in Seoul.

 A total of 43 people have so far recovered and have been released from hospital, including seven between Friday and Saturday and fourteen patients are in critical condition, the ministry said.

 The number of new cases had decreased for three days from eight on Tuesday to none on Saturday.

 People exposed to patients and quarantined at state facilities or at home also decreased to 4,035 on Saturday from a peak of more than 6,700 on Wednesday.

 The outbreak in South Korea -- the largest outside the Middle East -- sparked alarm in Asia, as Thailand confirmed its first MERS case on Thursday and Hong Kong recently advising its citizens against non-essential travel to South Korea.