South Korea reported two more confirmed cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome on Thursday, raising the total number of people diagnosed with the potentially fatal disease to seven.

The two new cases came from people placed in isolation at their own homes after coming in close contact with the first-ever patient, a 68-year-old male who is believed to have caught the disease while traveling to the Middle East in mid-April.

One of the two new patients is a 71-year-old man who had shared a hospital room with the first patient before the latter was diagnosed with MERS and then moved to a state-designated hospital.

The second person is a 28-year-old female nurse from the hospital, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Both new patients have been moved to CDC-designated hospitals for quarantine and treatment.

Meanwhile, the CDC said a South Korean placed under watch for a suspected case of MERS has left for China.

The 44-year-old man was confirmed to have left for China on Tuesday.

The man has yet to be diagnosed with the viral disease but was advised not to travel by his doctors after his fever rose to over 38 degrees Celsius on Monday, one of common symptoms of MERS, according to the CDC.

The CDC said it has notified the Western Pacific Region Office of the World Health Organization that the man has departed for China.

A CDC official said the country has also notified the Chinese government of the man's arrival in China, along with a list of 28 passengers who sat adjacent to the man on the Tuesday flight to the country.

The flight carried a total of 158 passengers and eight crew members. The CDC has said the disease is only transmitted through direct and close contact.

Following the notification, the man has also been admitted to a Chinese hospital where he is now undergoing a test for MERS and treatment for possible infection of the disease, the official told reporters, adding the outcome of the test is expected late Thursday or early Friday.

The official said the country has also offered to send a team of medical inspectors to the Chinese hospital, but that China has turned down the offer.

The man was one of 73 people who have been placed in isolation at their own homes so far after coming in close contact with the first patient, who reportedly caught the MERS virus while traveling to the Middle East in mid-April.

The man's 76-year-old father was the third person in the country to be diagnosed with MERS. The father had shared a hospital room with the first patient.

His sister has been diagnosed with MERS after she came in close contact with the first patient while visiting her father at the hospital. The CDC said the man had also visited his father at the hospital.

MERS is a viral respiratory illness that is fairly new to humans, with only 1,142 reported cases in 23 countries since the first case was confirmed in Saudi Arabia in 2012. (Yonhap)