The National Assembly is set to put a package of bills proposed to financially support patients and people suspected of being infected from Middle East respiratory syndrome to a vote Thursday. 

The bills also aim to defuse public fears of the deadly disease and to establish a new system to better respond to the outbreak of contagious diseases in the future.

A sub-parliamentary committee on health and welfare Wednesday is expected to approve a set of 25 MERS-related bills including a revised health care law that forces the government to release a list of patients suffering from contagious diseases, their routes and the hospitals they stayed at, on a real-time basis. 

Hospitals that admitted and treated the patients with infectious diseases will also be entitled to the government’s compensation program, according to the bills.

The revised bill on health care law will obligate general hospitals with more than 200 beds to install infection control facilities, including negative pressure isolation chambers for patients with contagious diseases and have medical staff trained in administering the patients with infectious diseases. 

The package also stipulates the government strengthen countermeasures against contagious diseases and to toughen quarantine measures at immigration offices to prevent MERS from spreading to neighboring countries.

The bills are also expected to go through the legislation and judiciary committee before being delivered to the plenary session for a final vote Thursday.

Rival parties are also reportedly working on a separate bill, namely the special MERS bill, to create legal grounds for securing a supplementary budget for people and businesses affected by the MERS outbreak, according to officials.


By Cho Chung-un
(christory@heraldcorp.com)