Virus spreads in S. Korean regions with lighter restrictions

Virus spreads in S. Korean regions with lighter restrictions

SeattlePI.com

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea reported a near-high in coronavirus infections Thursday as a weekslong surge extends beyond the capital region and the country's toughest pandemic restrictions.

The surge, increasingly fueled by the more contagious delta variant, is a worrisome development in a country where 70% of the population is waiting for their first vaccine dose. It further erases what had been a success story in the pandemic and underscores the challenges policymakers face in balancing measures to control virus outbreaks without further damaging their economy.

“Over the past week, there has been a clear increase in the speed of transmissions not only in the (Seoul) metropolitan area but also in non-metropolitan areas,” said Bae Kyung-taek, a senior Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency official, during a briefing. “We ask our people to cancel unnecessary meetings and refrain from going out as much as possible.”

Thursday's 1,600 new cases nearly matched South Korea's high from a day earlier and was the ninth straight day exceeding 1,000. The country’s caseload is now 173,511, including 2,050 deaths.

Most were in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province and Incheon, part of the densely populated capital region that’s home to half of South Korea’s more than 51 million people.

Officials here have raised social distancing restrictions to the highest “Level 4,” closing nightclubs and churches, banning visitors at hospitals and nursing homes and clamping down on private social gatherings of three or more people after 6 p.m.

But rising infections outside the capital area are prompting calls for virus restrictions to be elevated nationwide. The 494 cases outside the capital region were the highest since February 2020, when the country dealt with its first major...

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