(VOVworld) - South Korea on Wednesday reported eight more cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) infection and one more death, bringing the total death toll to 20.

A staff worker checks the temperature of Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon at an elementary school in Seoul, South Korea, on June 17, 2015 (Photo:news.cn)

At a regular press briefing, Kwon Jun-wook, director-general of the health ministry's public health policy, said that the patient who passed away in the morning was a 54-year-old woman, infected on May 25, who suffered from weak bronchial tubes and high blood pressure.

Five of the eight new patients were infected while visiting Seoul's Samsung Medical Center. The total number of MERS cases in South Korea is 162. The number of people quarantined stood at 6,508 and people ordered to stay at home grew 670.