SEOUL/BEIJING: South Korea reported its largest daily increase in coronavirus cases on Wednesday after 284 new infections were confirmed, bringing the total to 1,261 in the country.
The majority of the cases are concentrated in the southeastern city of Daegu, which has a population of around 2.5 million, and the surrounding region.
The quickly-spreading outbreak, which has also hit Cheongdo in North Gyeongsang Province, is the largest outside China, where the new coronavirus started spreading in December last year.
The US military said one of its soldiers was in self-quarantine after testing positive. The 23-year-old is based at Camp Carroll, located near Daegu. There are 28,500 US military personnel in South Korea.
Twelve deaths related to the Covid-19 illness caused by the virus have been recorded in South Korea, the Korea Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
The majority of the country’s cases have been linked to the Shincheonji church near Daegu, and to a hospital in Cheongdo.
President Moon Jae In has described the situation in the country as “very grave”, adding that the week ahead would be critical to combat the spread of the virus.
The Philippine government on Wednesday imposed a partial travel ban on South Korea. Filipino tourists are not allowed to visit to South Korea, while travellers from the province of North Gyeongsang are not allowed to enter the Philippines.
China quarantined 94 travellers from an Asiana flight from Seoul, South Korea as a precaution against a further spread of the epidemic after three passengers were found with fever, state media reported.
The three were taken to the hospital due to fears they might be infected, but the first test came back negative for all three. The results of a second test will be announced on Thursday, CCTV said.
Health authorities inspected the rest of the passengers who on the flight to Nanjing and quarantined travellers three rows in front of and three rows behind the patients who had a fever, totalling 94 out of the flight’s 166 passengers. — dpa
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