SEOUL, March 10 – South Korea’s daily new coronavirus cases rose by over 400 for a second consecutive day Wednesday, the highest in 19 days, as cluster infections continued to pile up across the country ahead of adjustments of social distancing rules, reported Yonhap News Agency.
The country reported 470 more COVID-19 cases, including 452 local infections, raising the total caseload to 93,733, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said as reported by the agency.
The country added three more deaths from COVID-19, raising the total to 1,648.
After briefly falling below 400 on Monday due to fewer tests carried out over the weekend, the daily caseload rebounded to 446 on Tuesday.
Daily infections had been falling gradually since posting a record high figure of 1,241 on Christmas last year.
But the curve faced a gridlock recently, with the daily tally stuck in the 300s and 400s over the past weeks despite the country’s social-distancing scheme that bans private gatherings of five or more people.
The greater Seoul area is currently under the Level 2 social distancing scheme, the third highest in the country’s five-tier system, while other regions are placed under Level 1.5, effective until Sunday.
Health authorities plan to decide Friday whether to extend the current curbs or not. Authorities may choose to keep the current level of distancing if there’s no let-up in virus cases.
Source: BERNAMA