By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea plans to discuss whether it needs to tighten the distance rules further this weekend, as current restrictions have failed to reverse the resurgence of outbreaks, with the daily coronavirus count hitting another high on Friday. fair, officials said.
The Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 1,241 new cases of coronavirus at midnight on Thursday, the highest daily count on record.
Daily figures have hovered at record levels in recent weeks, around 1,000, but the government has resisted calls to impose the toughest Level 3, at least for the Seoul area due to economic concerns, calling it a last resort.
Level 3 restrictions would essentially mean blocking Asia’s fourth largest economy, closing another 1.2 million businesses and allowing only essential workers in the offices.
Health officials blamed an outbreak in a Seoul prison for the new daily count, but said they would meet on Sunday to decide whether the gap needs to be reduced to Level 3.
“The weekly average has exceeded 1,000, but we still see that it is more likely to be a temporary phenomenon,” Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official, told a news conference.
“But how it would affect our decision at Level 3 … we will have a meeting on Sunday and we will disclose the result.”
The streets around the main cathedrals and churches, which would otherwise be full of cars and worshipers, were empty, showing images from local television as they performed Christmas services online in line with a growing ban.
Some new restrictions were taken this week, including the ban on meetings of more than four people and the suspension of ski resorts and tourist spots, with the aim of preventing the spread during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun called for anti-virus measures to be strictly implemented, especially in military and correctional facilities.
In a prison in eastern Seoul, 478 inmates and 20 workers have tested positive so far, including 288 newly confirmed on Thursday.
Although the majority of the public is cooperative, many still disregard distancing rules, said Chung, referring to some restaurants and bars that defy the ban on receiving guests after 9 pm with the doors locked and the lights off.
More than 118,000 tests were conducted across the country on Thursday, Yoon said, while authorities have been stepping up tests since last week to better track cases of unknown origin and people who have been infected but have no symptoms.
South Korea had initial success in rapidly controlling outbreaks with aggressive testing and contact tracking, but that success led to an overconfidence that left the government struggling to contain a third wave, critics say.
The total number of infections is 54,770, with 773 deaths, according to KDCA data.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Jack Kim; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)