A man from the Republic of Korea (ROK) tested positive for MERS in Guangdong on May 29. He is being treated at Huizhou Municipal Central Hospital.
The commission said they had quarantined 75 people who had close contact with the man, and none of them showed any MERS symptoms.
The man, 44, had visited a MERS patient at a ROK hospital and expressed discomfort as early as May 21.
Despite a doctor recommending that he cancel his travel plans, he flew to Hong Kong on May 26 and entered Huizhou City via Shenzhen.
Zhong Nanshan, a renowned respiratory expert, said a massive outbreak of MERS in China was unlikely given a lack of evidence on sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus.
South Korea is being urged to provide detailed information about its MERS outbreak as soon as possible in order for Chinese disease control authorities to prevent new imported cases, according to
Song Tie, deputy director of the Guangdong CDC.
The number of South Koreans diagnosed with MERS rose to 35 on Thursday, including five tertiary contagions, or third-generation cases, according to South Korea's Health Ministry. The first patient tested positive on May 20.
As of Thursday, three people in South Korea had died of the disease. More than 1,100 schools in the country decided to suspend classes on Thursday.
Anxiety about the MERS outbreak has also spread, with the Korea Tourism Organization reporting on Thursday that more than 4,400 tourists from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan had canceled their trips to South Korea.
"Sustained human-to-human transmission was rare among previous MERS cases in the Middle East.
The tertiary contagions in South Korea are a warning that the virus may have mutated and the infectiousness of MERS may have become stronger," said Li Chufang, an associate researcher at the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease.
Local officials and doctors have expressed confidence in controlling the virus, citing experience gained from outbreaks of bird flu and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
SARS was first reported in 2002 in Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong. It killed around 800 people in the world. In addition, Guangdong is one of the Chinese provinces that has dealt with the bulk of H7N9 bird flu cases since it emerged in 2013.
MERS is a respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus, similar to SARS. The first human case emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012. There is no vaccine or treatment for the disease, which has a fatality rate of about 40 percent.
Source: Xinhua
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