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SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged calm, saying “there is no reason to stay still out of fear” on Sunday (May 10) as the health department reported 34 additional cases from the coronavirus amidst a string of club-linked infections attendees
Figures released by the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention increased the number of virus cases to 10,874, including 256 deaths.
The agency said 26 of the 34 new patients were cases transmitted locally, while the others came from abroad. It was the first time that the daily jump has been above 30 in about a month.
Most of the cases in the past few days have been related to nightclubs in the Itaewon entertainment district of Seoul. A 29-year-old man had visited three clubs before testing positive last week.
Seoul Mayor Park Won promptly on Saturday ordered the closure of more than 2,100 hostess nightclubs, bars and nightclubs and urged others to enforce anti-virus measures. On Sunday, the governor of Gyeonggi province, which surrounds Seoul, ordered the two-week closure of all nightclubs there.
“The infection group, which recently occurred in entertainment facilities, has raised awareness that even during the stabilization phase, similar situations can arise again, anytime, anywhere in a crowded, enclosed space.” Moon said.
“We must never let our guard down on epidemic prevention,” he said, adding that his country had “the appropriate medical and quarantine systems combined with experience to respond quickly to any group of unexpected infections that may occur.”
Moon said his government will focus all its capabilities on overcoming the economic damage, which he described as “colossal.”
“We cannot survive if we do not turn this crisis into an opportunity,” he said.
Moon said South Korea’s trade balance in April posted a deficit for the first time in 99 months, and that the contraction in the service industry is expanding into a crisis in the manufacturing industry.
He said the government will try to create jobs, boost consumption, recover tourism and promote investment.
South Korea’s liberal president also added that his proposal to North Korea to jointly tackle infectious diseases like Covid-19 is still on the table, although the North has not responded.
President Moon Jae-in told reporters on Sunday that he believes the North is suffering “various difficulties” from the coronavirus pandemic. He did not elaborate.
His spy agency recently told lawmakers that the pandemic had curtailed Northern foreign trade and triggered a panic purchase in Pyongyang.
Moon said he will try to persuade North Korea to accept his offers for many reconciliation projects after the pandemic stabilizes. – AP
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