SEOUL, South Korea — Experts from the World Health Organization and South Korea on Saturday downplayed concerns about the MERS virus spreading further within the country, which recorded its 14th death and a dozen new infections, but said it was premature to declare the outbreak over.

After a weeklong review of the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome, the panel of experts told a news conference that there was no evidence to suggest the virus is spreading in the community. The outbreak in South Korea has so far been occurring only in hospitals, among patients, family members who visited them and medical staff treating them.

South Korean health workers take precautions against Middle East respiratory syndrome. So far, the virus in South Korea has killed 14 people and spread only in hospitals. The Associated Press

The virus has spread at a pattern similar to previous outbreaks in the Middle East, and the sequencing studies of samples from South Korea show no signs that the virus has increased its ability to transmit between humans, said WHO Assistant Director Keiji Fukuda.

While the infections seem to be stagnating, the South Korean government must continue to maintain strong control measures, such as thoroughly tracing patients’ contacts and preventing suspected patients from traveling, because it’s still early to declare the situation over, he said.

The continued discovery of new cases has created an impression that the outbreak is getting bigger, but Fukuda noted that many of the cases being reported were of people who were infected in the past. New infections appear to be declining, which suggests that the government’s control measures are having an impact, he said.

“Now, because the outbreak has been large and is complex, more cases should be anticipated,” he said.

There has been widespread fear here of the poorly understood disease, which has no vaccine and had a mortality rate as high as 40 percent in previous outbreaks.

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