Asia Today: After touting virus drop, SKorea sees cases rise

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Just days after South Korean officials hopefully declared the country’s COVID-19 epidemic was coming under control, health authorities reported 63 new cases following a dual rise in local transmissions and imported infections.

South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday said at least 36 of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of the country’s 51 million people live.

The KCDC didn’t immediately confirm whether the numbers included a new cluster of infections discovered at a front-line army unit in Pocheon, north of Seoul, where at least 13 troops have reportedly tested positive.

The KCDC said 29 of the new cases were local transmissions and tied the other 34 to international arrivals as the virus continues to spread in Asia, the United States and beyond. The government also plans to send to send two military planes to Iraq on Wednesday to evacuate around 300 South Korean construction workers amid the spread of the virus there.

The country had reported four local transmissions on Monday, which was the lowest in two months, prompting a celebratory tweet from President Moon Jae-in who said the nation was winning its fight against COVID-19.

Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip during a virus briefing Wednesday made a renewed call for citizen vigilance, saying that the ebb and flow in local transmissions will likely continue. Officials see imported cases as a lesser threat, as it enforces tests and two-week quarantines on all people arriving from abroad.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

— Nepal’s government on Wednesday ended its lockdown 120 days after it was imposed to control the spread of the coronavirus. Information Minister Yuba Raj...