SEOUL, May 29 (Yonhap) — A South Korean man who left for China after showing symptoms of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was confirmed as a new case Friday, Seoul officials said, raising the total number of MERS patients here to 10.

The 44-year-old man departed for China on Tuesday despite his doctors advising against traveling after his fever rose to over 38 degrees Celsius, one of the common symptoms of MERS.

In tests conducted by Chinese health authorities, he was found to be infected with the potentially deadly virus, the health ministry here said.

MERS is a viral respiratory illness that is fairly new to humans, with only 1,142 reported cases in 23 countries since the first case was confirmed in Saudi Arabia in 2012. There currently is no vaccine or treatment for the disease, which has a very high fatality rate of 40.7 percent.

He is a son of a 76-year-old man who was the third confirmed case of MERS in Korea and a brother of the fourth confirmed patient. The man is known to have stayed for four hours in a room where his father and another MERS patient were being treated.

Later, he visited an intensive care unit due to high fever. In his second visit on Monday, his doctors advised him not to travel but he left for China the following day.

He reportedly maintained a normal life with few restrictions for 11 days even after he was exposed to MERS patients, raising concerns that he could have spread the virus in the process.

This came after the health ministry earlier confirmed two additional MERS cases in South Korea — a 30-year-old female medical staff who treated the first confirmed MERS patient and a 56-year-old who stayed in the same hospital ward as the first patient.

Most of the 10 people infected with the potentially deadly virus are known to have come in contact — direct or indirect — with the patient who was first confirmed on May 20.

Anxiety is mounting fast as the health condition of the 71-year-old man who tested positive for MERS on Thursday reportedly deteriorated sharply. Ministry officials said that medical staff inserted a tube into the patient to support his breathing.

The government remains on high alert and is scrambling to ease worries about public health.

Expressing concerns over the “worsening” situation, Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo vowed to make all-out efforts to stem the spread of MERS.

“We have to do our best to help our people feel safe in their lives and trust the government by perfectly coping with (the situations) with an attitude that we will not ignore any possible small thing,” he said at an emergency meeting held in Seoul.

He also asked medical staff around the country to confirm whether a patient with respiratory problems has recently been in the Middle East region and to report any suspected cases to health authorities immediately.

In a related move, the health ministry plans to punish medical staff for not reporting suspected cases to the government or those who refuse to have epidemiological tests even after showing MERS-like symptoms with a fine of 2 million won (US$1,806).

The ministry added that those who are suspected of being infected with MERS but unwilling to put themselves in quarantine will be fined 3 million won.

The World Health Organization (WHO), meanwhile, said it does not have any plans to regulate travel to South Korea, adding that all of the victims so far were infected by the first patient confirmed with the illness.