South Korea reported no additional cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome for the 19th straight day Friday, with the number of patients here remaining unchanged at 186.
  

Also, no additional fatalities from the disease have been reported for the past two weeks, with the country's death toll standing at 36, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
  

Out of the 186 people diagnosed with the disease so far, 12 still are hospitalized while the remaining 138 have been discharged following complete recoveries.
  

As of Thursday, 11 out of the 12 remaining patients had already tested negative for the potentially deadly disease, though they still needed time to recover from other complications caused by MERS, according to ministry officials.
  

Since the country reported its first case on May 20, some 16,700 people have been subject to isolation for possible infection following their exposure to MERS patients.
  

Most of them have been released after they showed no symptoms of MERS for more than the known maximum period of 14 days for the disease.
  

As of Friday, only one person remained in isolation as a suspected case, the ministry officials said.
  

MERS is a viral respiratory disease that had a very high fatality rate of over 40 percent until the outbreak here.
  

In South Korea, the fatality rate currently stands at 19.4 percent.
  

The disease was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It has since affected some 1,500 people throughout the world. (Yonhap)