The South Korean man quarantined in China over his possible MERS infection has tested positive for the disease in a preliminary test.
 
An official of the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Friday that Chinese authorities issued the notification late Thursday on the Korean traveler who had departed for China on Tuesday.
 
The official said Chinese authorities sent samples extracted from the man in his 40s from Guangdong Province to Beijing to confirm if he had contracted Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Test results are set to come out on Friday.
 
The man is said to have stayed in the same room as the first South Korean MERS patient for around four hours on May 16 while providing care for his elderly father who was later diagnosed with MERS.
 
Controversy is expected to mount as health authorities had excluded the man from those subject to quarantine.
 
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) explained that the man was not included because the staff of a clinic and a hospital failed to promptly inform health authorities, although the man had visited them last week after suffering a fever, suspecting that he may have contracted the illness. 
 
The man was found to have gone to work for eight days from last Tuesday before departing for China.
 
The KCDC plans to place in quarantine 28 people in Korea who had close contact with the man on the flight to China to block the further spread of the infectious disease. The center is also trying to identify who had close contact with the man at his workplace.