Two more coronavirus deaths in South Korea

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or coronavirus, or MERS, claimed two more lives in South Korea, bringing the total number of victims in the country to 27 since the disease was first detected in the country in May, the government announced Monday.

The latest victims are two men, aged 84 and 97, who were suffering from cancer.

They died on Sunday and Monday respectively, the Health Ministry said.

The first victim was a patient at Samsung Medical Center, the hospital with the most number of cases so far.

The authorities also detected three new cases, increasing the total numbers of infections in the country to 169.

The South Korean government claims the spread of the disease is under control as all the infections have occurred in hospitals.

A total of 3,833 people have been quarantined, around 200 less than Sunday, while 9,300 citizens who had been under preventive isolation have been discharged.

MERS mortality rate in South Korea currently stands at 15.7 percent.

More than 90 percent of the victims are old people or those already suffering from serious illnesses.

South Korea is the second country, after Saudi Arabia, to record the most number of MERS infections.

Nearly 1,200 coronavirus cases have been detected in the entire world so far.