South Korea reports 7th death, but slower pace of MERS cases

South Korea's health ministry said on Tuesday there were eight new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bringing the total to 95 but representing a sharp fall in the number of daily new cases from 23 reported a day earlier.

The ministry also said a patient infected with the MERS virus has died, becoming the seventh fatality in an outbreak that began in May.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has called for an all-out national effort to eradicate the outbreak, which has been spreading since a businessman brought it home from a Middle East trip last month.

• MERS deadly but most cases in hospital preventable, WHO says

South Korea has the second highest number of infections after Saudi Arabia, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

The seventh reported death in South Korea was a 68-year-old woman who had an existing heart ailment and had been in the emergency room of a Seoul hospital, to where a number of previous confirmed cases had been traced.

Three of the cases newly reported on Tuesday came from the same hospital emergency room, which has 37 out of the total of 95 cases, the ministry said.

All 95 cases of infection took place in health care facilities, according to the ministry.

About 2,500 people, who may have had contact with MERS patients, have been put under quarantine, some in hospitals but most at home. Authorities have said they are using mobile phones to track people who violate quarantine.

South Korea's new cases bring the total of MERS cases globally to 1,244, based on World Health Organization (WHO) data, with at least 446 related deaths.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong said on Tuesday it would issue a red alert against non-essential travel to South Korea.

Hong Kong's number two official, Carrie Lam, told reporters just ahead of a meeting of the city's Executive Council that the red alert would be issued.

A red alert is defined as a "significant threat" according to the Hong Kong government, and means people should "adjust travel plans" and "avoid non-essential travel"

Nam Kyung-pil, governor of Gyeonggi province, which surrounds the South Korean capital, Seoul, said the country was fighting two wars. "The war against the disease and the war against fear," he said.

The World Health Organization began work on a joint mission with South Korean doctors and officials to review the country's response and analyse the virus.

The WHO has not recommended any curb on travel, but thousands of tourists have cancelled plans to visit South Korea.

The Chinese territory of Macau required masks for people entering local healthcare facilities as a precaution against MERS, and advised residents to avoid travel to South Korea unless absolutely necessary.