A news conference in a meeting room in Huizhou Central Hospital on Thursday afternoon might seem boring and routine for reporters who have been keeping an eye of the first MERS case in China and coming to the hospital daily for updates about the patient's condition.

We would have been more interested in taking a peek into the intensive care unit downstairs, where the South Korean patient is receiving treatment in isolation.

However, we were shut out of the ward, no matter how much we begged the city health bureau's media officers.