South Korea on Tuesday held an emergency government meeting to discuss ways to counter the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome after the country reported the first two deaths from the contagious virus.

Two MERS patients -- a 58-year-old woman and a 71-year-old man -- died Monday after the first outbreak of the epidemic was reported here in late May.

The health ministry also reported six more cases of the viral disease a day earlier, bringing the total number of confirmed local MERS patients to 25.

The government on Tuesday convened an emergency meeting of acting Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan and the ministers of health, foreign affairs and home affairs in the face of the spread of MERS.

The ministers reportedly plan to review leveling up the country's epidemic alert, as well as expanding the range of the MERS quarantine, as part of countermeasures.

How to quell growing pubic anxieties over the disease will also be discussed during the meeting, officials said. (Yonhap)