South Korea has confirmed two more cases of MERS virus infection, raising the total number of the people diagnosed with the deadly virus in the Asian country to seven.

The new infection cases of the MERS, which is short for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, were announced on Thursday.

One victim ignored warnings not to travel, and flew to China on a business trip, according to the South Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“We advised him against the trip but he refused,” CDC director Yang Byung-Guk told reporters.

Chinese officials were notified and the infected man was taken to a hospital upon his arrival, the CDC said.

A list of nearly 30 passengers who were in close proximity of the victim during his plane trip to China was drawn up by authorities for possible checks.

All of the infections in South Korea, according to authorities in Seoul, were traced to the original case of a 68-year-old man diagnosed with the virus earlier this month. The man himself contracted the disease while on a trip to Saudi Arabia. The incident triggered public concerns across South Korea of a wider outbreak.

More than 70 citizens, who might have been exposed directly or indirectly to the original patient, were in “voluntary quarantine,” according to the CDC.

MERS is described by scientists as a deadlier but less contagious relative of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, which emerged in Asia in 2003 and killed hundreds of people, mostly in China.

The signs can vary from flu-like pain and aches to pneumonia and kidney malfunction.

The MERS has affected more than 20 countries, with the most cases being in Saudi Arabia, where more than 400 have died as a result of the disease since 2012.

South Korea’s Health Ministry said last week that there were 1,142 cases of MERS in 23 countries by May 16. Most of the cases were in the Middle East, according to the South Korean government.

HDS/HJL/GHN