South Korea spooked as new clusters discovered

In South Korea, a country which thought it had largely mastered the novel coronavirus pandemic, the clock is taking an unwelcome backward turn. As it grapples with surprise Covid-19 clusters emerging nationwide, Seoul is re-imposing social distancing restrictions that had been cautiously lifted early this month. South Korea registered 79 new cases on Thursday – the highest number of daily infections since April 5. So far, there have been 11,344 infections in the country, with 269 dead, according to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention. While the dreaded “second wave” has not appeared, a cluster that ignited in the nightlife zone of Itaewon has so far registered more than 260...