South Korea reported two more confirmed cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome on Thursday, raising the total number of people diagnosed with the potentially fatal disease to seven.

The two new cases came from people placed in isolation at their own homes after coming in close contact with the first-ever patient, a 68-year-old male who is believed to have caught the disease while traveling to the Middle East in mid-April.

One of the two new patients is a 71-year-old man who had shared a hospital room with the first patient before the latter was diagnosed with MERS and then moved to a state-designated hospital.

The second person is a 28-year-old female nurse from the hospital, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Both new patients have been moved to CDC-designated hospitals for quarantine and treatment.

Meanwhile, the CDC said a South Korean male now suspected of having MERS left for China on Tuesday.

The 44-year-old has yet to be diagnosed with the viral disease but was advised not to travel by his doctors after his fever rose to over 38 degrees Celsius on Monday, one of common symptoms of MERS, according to the CDC.

The CDC said it has notified the Western Pacific Region Office of the World Health Organization that the man has arrived in China.

A CDC official said the country has also notified the Chinese government of the man's arrival in China, along with a list of 28 passengers who sat adjacent to the man on the Tuesday flight to the country.

The flight carried a total of 158 passengers and eight crew members. The CDC has said the disease is only transmitted through direct and close contact.

Following the notification, the man has been admitted to a Chinese hospital where he is now undergoing a test for MERS and treatment for possible infection of the disease, the official told reporters, adding the outcome of the test is expected late Thursday or early Friday.

The official said the country has also offered to send a team of medical inspectors to the Chinese hospital but that China has turned down the offer.

So far, 73 people who have come in close contact with the first patient have been placed in isolation at their own homes.

However, the 44-year-old male, who is now in China, had not been under any restrictions despite the fact that the government had been aware of his possible exposure to the disease by coming in close contact with the first patient who reportedly caught the MERS virus.

The man's 76-year-old father was the third person in the country to be diagnosed with MERS. The father had shared a hospital room with the first patient.

His sister has been diagnosed with MERS after she came in close contact with the first patient while visiting her father at the hospital. The CDC said the man had also visited his father at the hospital.

Officials from the Health and Welfare Ministry later acknowledged that he was not placed in isolation or under any other restrictions even after the government became aware of his visit to his father.

Following a Seoul meeting of experts, the health ministry said its Vice Minister Chang Ok-ju will personally oversee the ongoing battle against MERS, taking control from the CDC.

In addition, a fresh inquiry will be conducted to make sure that everyone and anyone who has come in close contact with the first patient, who is still believed to be the sole source of the virus, have been accounted for and are in isolation.

Quarantine efforts at major ports will also be intensified to make sure that a person exposed to the virus does not leave the country, the ministry said.

"The ministry plans to make its utmost efforts to deal with the current situation, believing the disease can become a serious threat to the entire nation," Chang was quoted as saying at the meeting.

"It will again conduct a zero-based epidemiological survey while focusing all its efforts on putting an end to the spread of the disease at an early date," she added, according to the ministry.

 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. (Yonhap)