Hyderabad: The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 10,238,287 and killed over 504,078 people across the world. More than 5,549,958 people have recovered so far.
South Korea has reported 42 new infections of COVID-19 as infections steadily climb in the greater capital area, forcing authorities to consider stronger social restrictions.
South Korea was reporting hundreds of new cases a day in late February and early March following a major surge surrounding the southeast city of Daegu, where the majority of infections were linked to a single church congregation with thousands of members.
But while health authorities had used aggressive testing and contact tracing to contain the outbreak in that region, they are having a much harder time tracking recent transmissions in the Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of the country’s 51 million people live. With people increasingly venturing out in the public, new clusters are popping out from just about everywhere, including nightspots, churches, restaurants, warehouses and among door-to-door salespeople.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo during a briefing Sunday afternoon announced that the government is prepared to implement stronger social distancing measures if the epidemic continues to grow. He said the strongest measures including banning all gatherings of more than 10 people, shutting schools, halting professional sports, and restricting operations of non-essential businesses will be enforced if the daily increase in infections doubles more than two times during a week.
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