South Korea confirmed Thursday the 10th death from the Middle East respiratory syndrome, along with 14 additional cases which brought the total number of patients to 122.

The deceased was a 65-year-old man who is believed to have caught the virus on May 20th from another patient, the Health Ministry’s MERS special response team said. He had also been suffering from late-stage cancer.

As of Thursday, 3,680 have been quarantined for possible infection.

Of the 14 new patients, eight were infected at Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul ― now the nation’s most severely hit hospital with 55 patients ― while another caught the virus at Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital.

Authorities, however, have yet to determine where five of the patients contracted the virus.

Of particular concern was the case of a 35-year-old policeman who was initially released after he tested negative for MERS on June 3. He was readmitted on June 5 after his conditions worsened, and a retest Tuesday finally confirmed that he had the disease.

His case raised the possibility that MERS has been exposed to the general public, depending on when he caught the virus.

According to the health authorities and Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, he roamed around Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and South Chungcheong Province since May 31, when he first started showing symptoms. Just a day before he was readmitted, he used public transportation to travel from Seoul to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

As of now, all infections are thought to have occurred within hospital walls, according to the government.

If he caught the virus outside the hospital, it will be the first such case in Korea.

Another patient whose infection route was unconfirmed was a 77-year-old outpatient of Samsung Medical Center. All other patients at the hospital who had caught the virus did so while staying in an emergency room, which sparked concern of an unprecedented airborne infection of MERS.

But health authorities and experts said there was “no possibility” of the virus being transmitted via air, saying a lot more people would have been infected if that were the case.

“About 8,000 outpatients visit the Samsung Medical Center every day. If MERS was transmittable by air, at least 400 would have been infected,” said professor Eom Joong-sik, a bacteriologist with the government’s MERS special response team.

“If airborne infection was possible, families would be the most likely victims. But data implies that the likelihood of family infection ranges from five to 10 percent,” he said.

Also, among the newly confirmed were a 39-year-old pregnant

woman who was initially reported as the country’s first pregnant patient, but tested negative in the second test.

Kwon Deok-cheol of the special response team said she is stable as of now, and the ministry would provide support for her labor.

No deaths from the disease were reported Thursday, though 13 patients are in unstable condition, he added.

The MERS outbreak is expected to peak around Saturday and start to gradually decline afterward, said Yang Byung-kook, the director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a briefing to the National Assembly, Yang said there is a possibility three patients ― including one who has died ― may have sparked a large-scale outbreak like one at Samsung Medical Center. After being infected at the Samsung medical Center, they visited several hospitals in Seoul, Daejeon and Changwon in South Gyeongsang Province.

With the MERS scare sweeping the country, people are using less public transportation than before to avoid being in contact with a large number of people. According to the Korea Railroad Corporation, 1.91 million people used the railroads in early June, marking a 12 percent drop from the year before.

To date, nine people have died in Korea from MERS, which is known to particularly affect those with preexisting conditions. A total of 55 medical institutions have been affected by MERS, a list of which is on the home page of the Health Ministry.

South Korea has the second-highest number of MERS cases in the world at 122, second only to Saudi Arabia, where the disease was first reported in 2012. As of Wednesday night, 183 were quarantined at medical facilities as potential patients while 3,389 more were isolated in their homes.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)