Fears of another wave
SEOUL • South Korea's coronavirus fight hit another snag yesterday as church-linked cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area continued to rise ahead of further school reopenings, a key feature of eased social distancing, the Yonhap news agency reported.
The country reported 38 more cases of the coronavirus, inclu-ding 36 local infections yesterday, raising the total caseload to 11,541, according to the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
All of the new domestic cases were reported in Seoul and Incheon, west of the capital, and Gyeonggi province, which surrounds Seoul.
A string of virus cases traced to churches in Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan area have emerged as a new source of concern as the country is still wrestling with cases tied to nightclubs and a distribution centre in the greater Seoul area.
This comes as some 1.8 million students will go back to school today as part of the third phase of school reopenings, after high school seniors became the first group to do so on May 20.
However, the daily number of new infections appears to be on a downward trend after it hit a nearly two-month high of 75 last Thursday amid a spike in cases tied to the logistics centre west of Seoul.
As of noon yesterday, the number of cases tied to 23 small churches in Incheon and Gyeonggi province reached 45, up by 22 over the past 24 hours, according to the KCDC.
The agency said 71 per cent of 24 virus patients tied to the churches showed no symptoms, indicating that those who have come into contact with them could be unwittingly infected.
An epidemiological study showed worshippers held gatherings without fully complying with hygiene measures.
"We call on people not to have face-to-face (religious) meetings in Seoul's metropolitan area until infection risks fall," KCDC deputy director Kwon Joon-wook said in a briefing.
The health authorities remain skittish about the possibility that sporadic church-traced cases could lead to a potential new wave of mass infections in the densely populated area.
In February, the country saw a sharp rise in virus cases tied to the church services of a minor sect in the south-eastern city of Daegu, once the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in South Korea.
"Large-scale infections are feared to come in the Seoul metropolitan area, however, we can succeed in containing the virus spread when citizens raise their guard against the pandemic to break the chain of virus transmissions," senior health official Sohn Young-rae said in a briefing.