The number of people diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in South Korea remained fixed at 186 on Wednesday as the country reported no additional cases of the disease for the 24th straight day.

The country's death toll from the disease also remained flat at 36 with no additional fatalities over the past 18 days, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Out of the 186 people diagnosed so far, 12 still remain hospitalized though 11 of them have already tested negative for the disease and are now only recovering from other complications caused by MERS.

The remaining 138 have been discharged following complete recoveries.

Since the country reported its first case on May 20, some 16,700 other people have been subject to isolation for possible infection after coming into close contact with MERS patients.

All of them have been released from isolation after they showed no symptoms of MERS for more than the known maximum incubation period of 14 days for the disease, according to ministry officials.

Now, only one person, suspected of possible infection during his or her trip to the Middle East, remains in isolation, they said. The person will be removed from isolation Friday unless he or she develops clear symptoms of MERS before then.

On Tuesday, Seoul declared an effective end of the MERS outbreak, which triggered a severe health scare and blindsided Asia's fourth-largest economy by pummeling consumer spending and the tourism sector.

MERS is a viral respiratory syndrome that was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

The disease has since affected over 1,300 people throughout the world, but most of the cases have been linked to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.

South Korea has the second-largest number of MERS cases in the world after Saudi Arabia, which has reported over 1,000 cases since 2012.

However, the fatality rate of the disease in South Korea remains at 19.4 percent, while the rate for the rest of the world is around 40 percent. (Yonhap)