South Korea on Saturday reported a six-fold jump in viral infections in four days to 346, most of them linked to a church and a hospital in and around the fourth-largest city where health workers scrambled to screen more than 9,000 worshipers.
There's concern that the death toll, currently at two, could grow. Virus patients with signs of pneumonia or other serious condition at the Cheongdo hospital were transferred to other facilities, 17 of them critical, Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told reporters.
He said that the outbreak had entered a serious new phase, but still expressed cautious optimism that it can be contained to the region surrounding Daegu, where the first case was reported on Tuesday.