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SEOUL: The South Korean capital and nearby areas will close bars and nightclubs, limit religious gatherings and restrict service in restaurants, in a bid to contain a third rising wave of coronavirus infections, the Health Minister said on Sunday (November 22).
The Korea Disease Prevention and Control Agency (KDCA) reported 330 new cases of coronavirus daily as of midnight Saturday, a drop from the 386 reported the previous day, but the fifth consecutive day of more than 300 new cases.
“The third wave of COVID-19 outbreaks is increasingly in full swing,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said in a briefing. “The situation is extremely serious and serious.”
A nationwide outbreak was being driven by clusters of infections in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, he said, home to about half of the country’s 52 million residents.
Starting Tuesday, major Seoul-area coffee shops will be required to offer takeout and home delivery only, while restaurants must close for in-person dining after 9 p.m. Additional restrictions will be imposed on facilities such as gyms, with attendance limits for religious gatherings and sporting events.
READ: South Korea’s third wave of COVID-19 may be bigger if not curbed, official says
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting that preventive distancing regulations might be necessary to prevent a broader outbreak, the Yonhap news agency reported.
“We are at a critical juncture of facing a large number of infections across the country,” Chung said.
On Saturday, a KDCA official said the country could be facing an outbreak that surpasses the previous two waves of infections, if it fails to block the current spread.
READ: South Korea starts a special anti-COVID-19 period before the university entrance exam
The strict prevention guidelines are intended in part to allow students to move on with highly competitive annual college entrance exams scheduled for December 3.
South Korea has made an aggressive tracing, testing and quarantine effort to end the outbreaks without imposing blockades. But the country has been hit by a persistent number of small infections, bringing the total number of cases to 30,733 with 505 deaths.
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