New cases surpass 600 for 4th day as S. Korea braces for eased distancing
A healthcare worker cools off at a COVID-19 testing center in Seoul Station plaza, June 25. Yonhap
Daily new COVID-19 cases here remained over 600 for the third straight day Friday, due to outbreaks of infection clusters nationwide, as the authorities prepared to announce a new set of eased social distancing rules.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 668 new infections, including 611 local ones, raising the accumulated caseload to 154,457.
Three more coronavirus deaths were also announced, raising the death toll to 2,012, at a fatality rate of 1.3 percent.
The country's daily infection tally had stayed below 600 since June 11, but the number rebounded and has stayed over this since Tuesday as new infection clusters involving schools, churches and entertainment facilities arose across the country. New cases of infected people arriving in the country also continued.
The health authorities are on edge in particular over the steady growth in numbers of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus as the government is set to relax its social distancing measures.
Since reporting the first local case of the Delta strain in April, the number of cases had risen to 190 as of June 19.
Infections due to the Delta strain currently account for 8.5 percent of all cases involving mutated variants of COVID-19 here, but the health authorities are bracing for a potential explosion, given its massive global spread.
The recent uptick in daily new cases and concerns about the Delta variant's spread comes as the government is set to implement a new social distancing regime July 1, aimed at allowing businesses to extend operating hours and easing restrictions on social gatherings in accordance with its accelerating vaccination drive.
The greater Seoul area is now under Level 2 measures in the current five-level system, while the rest of the country is under Level 1.5. Private gatherings of five or more are banned nationwide.
Under the new four-tier plan to take effect next month, the capital area is likely to remain at Level 2 (in the new system) in which restaurants and cafes will be allowed to stay open until midnight, while bars and other nightlife facilities will be allowed to resume business. Currently, restaurants and cafes are allowed to open only till 10 p.m., while the operations of bars and other nightlife establishments have been suspended.
The nationwide ban on gatherings of five or more people will also be lifted under the renewed guidelines, with the ceiling expected to go up in stages to eight.
In regions outside of the capital area, where Level 1 will be applied in the new four-tier system, all restrictions on business operations and on the size of social gatherings will be abolished.
The government plans to fix the final distancing level of each region at a COVID-19 response meeting Sunday afternoon and announce them the same day.
As of Saturday, a total of 15.26 million people, or 29.7 percent of the country's 51.3 million population, have received their first shots of COVID-19 vaccines since the rollout began in late February.
Of them, 4.6 million, or 9 percent of the population, have been fully inoculated, according to the KDCA.
The country aims to inoculate 36 million with at least one dose by September in order to achieve herd immunity by November.
Of the newly confirmed domestic cases, 260 came from Seoul and 185 from the surrounding Gyeonggi Province. The southern port city of Busan added 28 cases.
The number of patients in serious or critical condition came to 149, up six from the previous day.
People released from quarantine after making a recovery numbered 145,989, up 600 from the previous day. (Yonhap)