Singapore: After grabbing four Asian countries into its clutches , MERS has now moved to Philippines. The Department of Health (DOH) has registered the second MERS case in the country after after a 36-year-old male foreigner from the Middle East tested positive of the virus.

DOH spokesperson Mr Lyndon Lee-Suy said the patient was already on the 14th day of the incubation period of the virus when he was tested. This means that the risk of transmission to other passengers in the same flight with the patient is lower.

However officials are monitoring eight people who had close contact with the patient. Health Secretary Mr Janette Garin said around 200 passengers who were on a flight to Manila that the foreigner took were also being traced.

At least seven other people who had close contact with the patient were under home quarantine. Isolated cases cropped up in Asia before an outbreak erupted in South Korea in May and became the largest outside of Saudi Arabia.

A total of 186 people have been infected in South Korea, and 33 have died. The country's health authorities said on Monday that the outbreak may have turned the corner, with only four new cases reported in the past week.