SEOUL, South Korea — In the past month, Kim Yon-hwa, a sales clerk in Myeongdong, a popular shopping district in Seoul, has witnessed a drastic change reflecting the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome¹: The street outside her cosmetics² shop, once teeming³ with foreign tourists, is nearly empty.

韩国首尔——过去一个月，明洞售货员金莲花（Kim Yon-hwa，音）目睹了反映中东呼吸综合征（Middle East respiratory syndrome，简称MERS）疫情的一个巨大变化：她的化妆品店外的街道曾经挤满了外国游客，现在却几乎空无一人。明洞是首尔备受欢迎的一个购物区。

“You can’t see any foreigners outside, can you?” she said, glancing at the street. “The situation is not just serious; as far as we are concerned, it’s a crisis.”

“外面根本看不到任何外国人，对吧？”她朝街上看了一眼，说道。“情况已经不只是严重了；在我们看来，这是一场危机。”

Since the first case of the infectious disease, known as MERS, was discovered in South Korea on May 20, the outbreak has scared away enough tourists and domestic consumers for the government to worry about its effect on the economy.

自5月20日在韩国发现具有传染性的MERS的第一个病例以来，它已经吓走了大量游客和国内消费者，政府开始担心它对经济造成的影响。

Although health officials said the outbreak was subsiding⁴, government policy makers⁵ who fear a much longer effect said on Monday that they were considering a spending increase to help stimulate⁶ the economy.

尽管卫生官员表示疫情正在减弱，但是担心疫情会造成更长久影响的政府决策者周一表示，他们正在考虑通过增加开支的做法来刺激经济。

In the past few days, two state-financed research organizations forecast that the economic growth rate in 2015 would slow to a range of 2.8 percent to 2.9 percent, down from 3.3 percent last year. They cited the MERS outbreak as a burden on the economy, which had already shown more serious signs of slowing down, like weak domestic demand and declining exports.

过去几天，两个由国家资助的研究机构预测称，2015年的经济增长率将从去年的3.3%降至2.8%–2.9%。他们认为MERS疫情给经济造成了负担——经济已经出现了更严重的放缓迹象，比如内需不足和出口减少。

As South Koreans avoided crowds for fear of infection, shopping malls, theme parks, baseball stadiums and even subways and charter bus services all reported a sharp drop in users. Many people avoided seeing doctors, as the virus spread through hospitals.

由于担心被传染，韩国人在尽量避开人群。大型商场、主题公园、棒球场，甚至地铁和公共汽车都表示消费者或使用者人数大量减少。许多人都不愿意看医生，因为这种病毒就是通过医院传播的。

The disease also turned off what used to be a fast-growing inflow of foreign tourists, mainly from China. More than 124,000 tourists, most of them from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, have canceled trips to South Korea this month, an estimated drop of 24 percent from last year, according to government data.

MERS还促使原本增长迅速的外国游客人数出现骤降，这些游客主要来自中国。政府数据显示，本月共有逾12.4万名游客——其中大多来自中国大陆、台湾和香港——取消了他们的韩国行程，预计同比降低24%。

The influx⁷ of Chinese-speaking tourists had been a bright spot for South Korea’s slowing economy.

讲中文的游客的涌入，过去一直是放缓的韩国经济的一个亮点。

In Myeongdong, sales clerks used to shout in Chinese into a human river of tourists that filled up the alleyways.

在明洞，售货员曾用中文向挤满窄窄街道的游客吆喝。

That changed when the virus hit South Korea in May, leading Hong Kong to advise residents to refrain from visiting South Korea.

5月，当韩国受到MERS攻击时，一切都发生了变化。香港甚至告诫居民不要前往韩国。

Before the outbreak, buses loaded with Chinese tourists clogged⁸ the streets around duty-free shops in Seoul. Now they are all gone. The virus has also been bad news for plastic surgery clinics in the Gangnam district of Seoul, which have been profiting from Chinese women arriving for face-lifts.

疫情爆发前，首尔免税店周边的街道通通被满载中国游客的巴士阻塞。现在，它们都不见了。对于首尔江南区的整形外科诊所，MERS也是个坏消息。这些诊所一直在靠来整形的中国女性盈利。

The outbreak “has already had a significant impact on the economy,” the minister of strategy and finance, Choi Kyung-hwan, told Parliament on Monday, adding that the government was considering a supplementary⁹ budget to help stimulate domestic demand dampened by the MERS scare.

此次疫情“已经对经济造成了严重影响”，企划财政部部长崔炅焕(Choi Kyung-hwan)周一对议会表示。他还说，政府正在考虑一项补充预算，以刺激因为MERS引起的恐慌而受到抑制的国内需求。

The central Bank of Korea, which had earlier cut its benchmark interest rate to a historic low, said last week that it would provide 650 billion won, or $590 million, in funding to small and midsize enterprises affected¹⁰ by the outbreak.

早些时候把基准利率降到历史最低点的韩国央行上周表示，将提供6500亿韩元（约合36.5亿元人民币）资助受疫情影响的中小型企业。

“You should not take the umbrella away while it’s raining,” Yim Jong-yong, chairman of the government’s Financial Services Commission, told a meeting of domestic bank leaders on Monday, urging them to extend help to retailers¹¹ and other small companies worst hit by MERS.

周一，韩国政府财政服务委员会(Financial Services Commission)主席任钟龙(Yim Jong-yong)告诉一些国内银行领导人，“你们不能在下雨的时候把雨伞撤走。”他敦促他们针对受MERS影响最严重的零售商和其他小型企业提供更多的帮助。

With 172 people infected, including 27 deaths, the MERS outbreak in South Korea is the largest outside Saudi Arabia, where the disease first emerged in 2012. South Korean health officials said that the outbreak appeared to be coming under control, with the number of new cases decreasing.

韩国共有172人受到感染，其中死亡27人。除沙特阿拉伯以外，韩国是MERS疫情最严重的地方。2012年，MERS首次在沙特阿拉伯出现。韩国卫生官员表示，疫情似乎已逐渐得到控制，新增病例的数量在减少。

In an attempt to lure¹² back foreign tourists, the Ministry¹³ of Culture, Sports and Tourism has offered a free insurance service for foreign visitors that would cover all MERS-related medical and other costs. But businessmen feared that the effect of the virus on domestic consumption and tourism would persist.

为了重新吸引外国游客，韩国文化体育观光部(The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)为外国游客提供了免费的保险服务。这些保险将囊括所有与MERS相关的医疗费和其他费用。但是，从商者担心MERS对国内消费和旅游业的影响将会持续。

“It’s fortunate that MERS is slowly subsiding,” Park Yong-maan, the chairman of the Korea Chamber¹⁴ of Commerce and Industry, said on Monday. “But the economic sentiment remains¹⁵ constricted¹⁶.”

“很幸运，MERS的势头在慢慢减弱，”韩国工业商会(Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry)会长朴容晚(Park Yong-maan)周一表示。“但是经济氛围仍然处于压抑状态。”