The presidential office has expressed concern over an announcement by the mayor of Seoul that a doctor infected with MERS may have transmitted the virus to many others
 
A senior presidential official said Friday that much of what Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said the previous day differs from or contradicts accounts from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the doctor in question.
 
The presidential official added that the mayor should choose his words carefully to avoid creating unnecessary panic.
 
During an emergency news conference Thursday night, Park said the 35th MERS patient, who is a doctor at a hospital in Seoul, attended a housing association rally and various other events before he was confirmed to have the disease.
 
The mayor then requested that some 15-hundred people who took part in the rally place themselves under voluntary quarantine.
 
Meanwhile, responding to growing public criticism over the government’s handling of the outbreak, presidential Spokesman Min Kyung-wook said President Park Geun-hye is going to great pains to deal with the MERS crisis, stressing it is her top priority.