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| A health official from the district office wearing protective gear disinfects as a precaution against the coronavirus in Seoul, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. AP |
Korea's new coronavirus infections rose by triple digits for a third straight day Friday, due to an increase of cluster infections across the country, putting the country's virus fight at risk amid the approaching winter season.
The country added 145 more COVID-19 cases, including 117 local infections, raising the total caseload to 27,195, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
It marked a slight rise from 125 added Thursday and 118 identified Wednesday.
The number of domestic transmissions was also the highest since Oct. 23, when 138 new cases were reported.
Recently, South Korea has seen an uptick in the number of daily cases due to sporadic cluster infections from senior nursing homes and hospitals.
Health authorities remain vigilant as such group transmissions were reported from private gatherings of families and friends as well.
Starting Saturday, South Korea will adopt a new level of social distancing scheme under revised five-tier antivirus restrictions aimed at mitigating the impact on businesses.
While the country is set to maintain the Level 1 social distancing scheme, each city is allowed to operate its own virus infection preventive system depending on the virus situation.
Cheonan and Asan of South Chungcheong Province already decided this week to issue the Level 1.5 alert amid the soaring number of COVID-19 cases there. This brings more restrictions on the size of gatherings and requires people to wear masks at more places.
Of the new local infections, 38 cases were reported in Seoul and 34 cases were from Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital. A whopping 25 cases also came from Chungcheong Province, along with 13 from South Gyeongsang Province.
The number of patients in the capital city could go up after a reporter covering the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee's funeral at the Samsung Medical Center last month in Seoul was diagnosed with the virus.
The health authorities estimated over 1,000 people, including politicians, senior government officials, business leaders and journalists, visited the hospital on Oct. 26, urging them to receive virus tests.
As of Thursday noon, the KDCA said a total of seven patients were traced to the funeral.
A brokerage house in western Seoul also reported 11 patients so far, after identifying its first patient on Monday.
In southern Seoul, a total of 42 patients were traced to a sauna facility.
From Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, a rehabilitation hospital has reported 106 COVID-19 cases.
The country added 28 imported cases.
The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients came to 50, down one from Thursday.
South Korea reported one additional death, raising the total to 476.
The number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries stood at 24,821, up 86 from the previous day.
The country has carried out 2,686,314 coronavirus tests since Jan. 3, including 12,608 tests from a day earlier. (Yonhap)
