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| A health inspector tests a visitor at Songpa Public Health Center for COVID-19 infection on Nov. 17. Yonhap |
South Korea's new coronavirus cases hovered above 200 for the fourth day in a row Tuesday due to continued cluster infections across the country, prompting health authorities to raise social distancing measures by one notch in the greater Seoul area.
The country added 230 more COVID-19 cases, including 202 local infections, raising the total caseload to 28,999, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Daily infections stayed in the triple digits for the 10th consecutive day, with the daily caseload exceeding 200 for the first time in 73 days on Saturday.
Cluster infections from private gatherings, public facilities and hospitals continued to occur in several parts of the nation, making it harder for health authorities to pin down potential cases and curb the spread of the virus.
To slow down the fast spread of COVID-19, health authorities raised the social distancing scheme from Level 1 to Level 1.5 under a five-tier scheme in the Seoul metropolitan area, effective from Thursday.
The KDCA warned of a faster spread of the coronavirus in the run up to the flu season, coupled with a flurry of year-end meetings and a nationwide college exam slated for early December, calling for people to follow the toughened social distancing regulations.
"Antivirus efforts have faced a crisis," Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said in a meeting with senior health officials. "When the level is raised, it will cause inconvenience to the public and bring hardship to small business owners, but we do know from prior experiences that a bigger crisis will come if we don't act now."
The latest measure comes as the daily average number of patients in the greater Seoul area surpassed 100 over the past week, the threshold for Level 1.5 for the region.
The number of new cases in the greater Seoul area, which houses around half of the nation's population, surpassed 100 for a fifth day.
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| A visitor to Sindorim Subway Station in Seoul's Guro District on Nov. 17 passes by an art work that raises awareness on wearing a facial mask to prevent getting infected or spread of COVID-19. Yonhap |
Some cities, including Cheonan and Asan in South Chungcheong Province; Wonju in Gangwon Province; and Suncheon, Gwangyang and Yeosu in South Jeolla Province, have already adopted Level 1.5 to cope with rising cases in the regions.
People are still allowed to carry on with most of their daily routines under Level 1.5, but business operators and people are required to follow toughened public health regulations.
Under Level 1.5, facilities with higher risk of virus infection, such as bars, clubs and indoor concert halls, are required to adopt stricter quarantine measures, such as keeping certain distances between tables and setting up partitions.
Rallies, music concerts and festivals are limited from having over 100 attendants, and attendants are not allowed to chant, sing or eat during the events.
Sports events and churches are allowed to have only 30 percent of their maximum capacity, and schools should have less than two-thirds of students in classrooms under the second-lowest level.
Among the locally transmitted cases, the capital city of Seoul accounted for 87 cases, and Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul reported 38. Incheon, west of Seoul, had 12 more.
The southern city of Gwangju reported 18 new cases, followed by South Jeolla Province with 16, Gangwon Province with 13 and South Chungcheong Province with nine.
The country added 28 imported cases, up from 30 on Monday. Eleven were from the United States and eight were from Russia.
The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients came to 60, up from 55 on Monday.
The KDCA reported no additional death, keeping the total at 494. The fatality rate was 1.7 percent.
The number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries came to 101, raising the total to 25,860. (Yonhap)
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