This photo taken on Nov. 15, 2020, and provided by the Cheorwon provincial government shows some 100 residents in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, taking coronavirus tests at a local drive-thru clinic after three confirmed cases were reported in the region.
SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is mulling strengthening its social distancing rules as the country’s daily new coronavirus cases exceeded 200 for a second straight day on Sunday due to cluster infections.
The country added 208 more COVID-19 cases, including 176 local infections, raising the total caseload to 28,546, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in a statement.
Daily infections stayed in the triple digits for the eighth consecutive day. The cases exceeded 200 for the first time in 73 days with a mark of 205 on Saturday.
Health authorities said they are giving serious consideration to raising the social distancing scheme from Level 1 to Level 1.5 to curb the upward trend in the pandemic.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Sunday that the government has issued a “preliminary warning” for the greater Seoul area and the eastern province of Gangwon ahead of enforcing tougher social distancing measures.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo, meanwhile, announced a special address, urging the public to stay vigilant against the virus as the country “is in a precarious situation in which COVID-19 is again spreading.”
“The scope and speed of the current wave is bigger and faster than the first wave. If we loosen up, a severe winter can come at any time,” he said in a briefing, stressing that the government may have to opt for additional measures if situations worsen.
KDCA reported one additional death, raising the total to 493. The fatality rate came to 1.73 percent.
The health agency attributed the sharp growth to chains of cluster infections from private gatherings and public facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes, which made it more complicated for them to identify transmission routes.
Among the locally transmitted cases, Seoul reported 81 cases, and Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital city reported 41. The greater Seoul area houses around half of the nation’s population.
The country added 32 imported cases. Asian countries accounted for 16 cases, followed by the United States with 10 and Europe with six.
The Asian countries included India, Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines, while the European countries included Germany, Poland, France and Hungary.
The number of seriously or critically ill patients came to 56, up two from Friday, while the number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries came to 25,691, up 55 from the previous day.
South Korea has carried out 2,786,878 COVID-19 tests, including 36,378 from Saturday.
The country saw its number of daily new infections peak at 909 in late February, after a minor church sect in Daegu reported major cluster infections.
The country faced another wave of pandemic in August, with the figure reaching 441 on Aug. 27 due to cases traced to a church in northern Seoul, coupled with an anti-government demonstration.
With signs of a possible slowdown, however, South Korea has kept the Level 1 social distancing scheme under a new five-tier system nationwide since earlier this month, although some cities and provincial governments upped their virus infection prevention measures.
This photo taken on Nov. 15, 2020, shows people lined up at the National Medical Center in central Seoul to receive coronavirus tests as the country reported more than 200 daily new cases for a second straight day. (Yonhap)
Asan and Cheonan, both located in South Chungcheong Province, adopted tougher measures two weeks ago.
Wonju in Gangwon Province and Gwangyang and Suncheon in South Jeolla Province also raised their social distancing schemes to Level 1.5 last week.
Yeosu, located 455 kilometers south of Seoul, is also among the regions that enhanced their guidelines.
Under Level 1, people are required to follow basic guidelines, such as wearing masks, and gatherings of over 500 people are not recommended.
People are still allowed to carry on with most of their daily routines under Level 1.5, but gatherings of 100 or more people are regulated, though not completely banned.
The latest uptick comes as new rules mandating face masks in public places took effect on Friday after a 30-day grace period to better combat the deadly respiratory illness.
To stem the spread of the virus, the country started slapping fines of up to 100,000 won (US$90) on people who fail to wear masks in public places.
Rally organizers and operators of public facilities will be fined up to 3 million won if they fail to ensure that users or participants stick to the requirement.
The pandemic, which started in China late last year, has killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide and infected nearly 54 million as of Sunday, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
(Yonhap)
