MERS-INFECTED KOREAN DOCTOR EXPOSED 1,500 PEOPLE TO DEADLY VIRUS

South Korea’s capital Thursday began asking more than 1,500 people to self-quarantine — and is considering measures to force their isolation — because they unknowingly attended a symposium with a doctor who was infected with MERS, Seoul’s mayor said.

The announcement by Mayor Park Won-soon came amid a MERS outbreak in South Korea, where the respiratory virus has killed 4 people since May and more than 900 schools have been shut to prevent the virus’s spread.

A doctor — one of 41 confirmed to have Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in South Korea — attended the symposium in Seoul in late May, after he began to have symptoms, Park said.

The doctor, who had treated a MERS patient earlier in the month, was quarantined May 30 and tested positive for MERS on June 1, Park said.

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