SOUTH Korean authorities squabbled yesterday over their handling of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, as a fourth person died and five new cases were reported.

The government has promised to do everything it can to end the outbreak which began in South Korea last month when an infected man brought it back from a business trip to the Middle East.

With 41 cases, South Korea has the most infections outside the Middle East where the disease first appeared in 2012, and where most of the 440 fatalities have been.

As the number of infections in South Korea rises daily, fear and anger are growing. South Korea‘s neighbors are also increasingly concerned.

Memories are still fresh of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in 2002-2003 and killed about 800 people worldwide. MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that caused SARS.

Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo accused authorities in the capital, Seoul, of giving out incorrect information about a case which he said would spread alarm and undermine the fight against the disease.

On Thursday, city officials accused national authorities of being slow to share information, in particular about a doctor who had treated a MERS patient and subsequently went to a May 30 gathering attended by 1,565 people.

The doctor was later diagnosed with MERS and people at the gathering have been advised to stay in voluntary quarantine.

Moon rejected assertions his ministry had mishandled the case. “The announcement by the city of Seoul yesterday has parts that are not factual and can increase public concern,“ he said.

The comments would only hurt the credibility of government efforts to stamp out MERS, he said.

The most recent MERS patient to die was a 76-year-old man who had been in the same ward as other MERS patients and had been suffering from various other ailments, the health ministry said.

Yesterday, five more people were confirmed to be carrying the disease.

More than 1,000 schools have shut as fear has spread.

Traffic was light yesterday in parts of Seoul where schools are located and many people wore face masks on the streets.

Bowing to public pressure, the health ministry confirmed the location of the hospital where most of the cases have been diagnosed. It is in Pyeongtaek, a city 65 kilometers southwest of Seoul,

More than 3,000 people have been advised to stay at home in voluntary quarantine or have been quarantined at medical facilities.

The World Health Organization said it would send a team to review the situation and assess the response. It has not recommended travel restrictions but thousands of people have already canceled trips to South Korea.

China last week reported its first case, that of a South Korean man who tested positive after traveling to Hong Kong and on to China’s mainland on a business trip.

Chinese media said health authorities had been told to step up vigilance, especially given that many Chinese Muslims would be traveling to the Middle East on pilgrimage later in the year.

Japan has said it was looking into possible quarantine measures for people arriving from South Korea.