Seoul: Eight new Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) cases were reported in South Korea on Wednesday, taking the total to 162, the health ministry said.

Among the new cases were five people contracting the virus at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, where the patient 14, called super spreader, has infected nearly 80 people, Xinhua news agency reported. One Samsung hospital doctor, 33, was included in the list of new infectees.