Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) announced Monday that the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) crisis would officially end on Tuesday.

The announcement follows the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, which state if there is no additional patient occurrence for 14 days after the first confirmed patient tested negative, the host country should consider the situation to have ended.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and KCDC also lowered the alert level from “caution” to “attention” on Sept. 22, after concluding that the possibility of future infections was low.

Since the possibility of overseas inflow of MERS continues, however, the government announced that it would evaluate and check the point indicated during the response process and improve its MERS response system.

Also, to prevent the spread of MERS in the future, it is necessary for citizens that visit the Middle East countries to observe personal hygiene regulations such as washing hands and refrain from visiting farms and local hospitals, expect for treatment reasons, during their trip. The ministry also advised citizens to stay away from eating camel meat and milk.

The ministry stressed that anyone showing possible MERS symptoms to report their case to a nearby health center and call the emergency hotline (1339).

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