New virus cases spike back to 600s

Visitors wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk near a stream in Seoul, May 3. AP-Yonhap

South Korea's daily new virus cases spiked to the 600s on Wednesday as rising cluster infections continue to hamper the country's virus fight against the pandemic.

The country reported 676 more COVID-19 cases, including 651 local infections, raising the total caseload to 124,945, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The daily new cases are sharply up from the 541 recorded a day earlier, the KDCA said. The number also bounced back to the 600s after three days.

The country added seven more deaths, raising the death toll to 1,847, the KDCA said.

The daily caseload has been on an upward trend over the past week.

The greater Seoul area, home to more than half of the country's 52 million people, is under Level 2 social distancing, the third highest in the five-tier scheme, with non-capital regions under Level 1.5.

Of the locally transmitted cases, Seoul reported 234 new cases, and Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital city identified 126 new patients, the KDCA said.

Gwangwon Province registered 48 additional cases, South Gyeongsang Province 38 cases, and Busan and Ulsan, major cities in the southeastern region, reported 22 and 21 new cases, respectively.

There were 25 new imported cases, down two from a day earlier, the KDCA said.

The number of patients with serious symptoms across the country reached 173, up 11 compared with the previous day.

The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries was 114,944, up 816 from a day earlier, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)