Korea's daily Covid-19 tally spiked to a two-week high on Wednesday, reversing the gradual declining trend of the past few days as virus variants emerged as a new challenge in the country's fight against the pandemic.
However, health authorities remained cautious, saying it could be a temporary surge.
"The daily tally’s surpassing 600 on Wednesday may be a temporary surge coming after the gradual decline over the past two weeks," said Yoon Tae-ho, head of the overall quarantine squad at the Central Disasters Management Headquarters. "The overall trend is the most important factor, and the government will not change its policy by new occurrences in a day or two.”
It is difficult to judge the overall situation from the increase in the number of patients as the figure tends to increase from Wednesday to Friday when the “weekend effect” -- lower new infections at the beginning of the week due to fewer tests during weekends -- disappears, Yoon added.
"Even if the government applies a new social distancing system from next month, please refrain from large-scale gatherings with acquaintances or long dinner meetings accompanied by drinking as much as possible until mid-July," he said.
Data from the nation's mobile carriers also showed that outdoor activities are increasing, leading to a further increase in cases.
According to the data, more than 77.31 million people -- 35.53 million in the Seoul metro region and 38.18 million in the rest of the country -- traveled across the country last weekend.
Compared to the previous weekend, the figure was a 3.7 percent increase for the greater Seoul area and an 8.3 percent rise in other regions.
Another risk factor is the spread of variant cases imported from abroad, which has a stronger contagious power.
"As the risk of variant cases remains high, the government is analyzing some patients with a high risk of testing positive for such cases," Yoon said. "Recently, the detection rate of the mutated virus in Korea is about 40 percent, although it remains low compared to overseas."
Of the detected variant cases, alpha variants originating from the U.K. account for 85 percent, and delta mutations arising from India account for 12 percent, he added.
Concerns regarding variant cases are mounting as the country is set to ease its social distancing scheme in July, allowing businesses to stay open longer and permits gatherings of more people.
The greater Seoul area, which houses around half of the nation's 52-million population, is currently under Level 2 social distancing scheme, the third-highest in the five-phase system until July 4. Other areas are under Level 1.5, although some large cities, including Busan and Daegu, maintain Level 2.
However, under the new four-tier system, the authorities will allow restaurants and cafes in the capital area to operate until midnight, an extension from the current restrictions of 10 p.m.
The government will also lift the nationwide ban on gatherings of five or more under the renewed guidelines, with the ceiling set to be raised to eight under Level 2 and no limitation under Level 1 guidelines.
The government has vaccinated 15,098,865 people – 10,381,358 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, 3,592,167 with Pfizer's vaccine, 1,123,956 with Janssen's vaccine, and 1,384 with Moderna's vaccine – with the first shot of the vaccine up 30,346 from the previous day.
The figure accounts for 29.4 percent of the country's population.
On Wednesday, the KDCA confirmed 645 new virus cases, including 605 local infections, raising the cumulative caseload to 152,545.
One more person died of Covid-19, raising the death toll to 2,007 with a fatality rate of 1.32 percent. A total of 144,379 people have returned to their daily life after full recovery, up 562 from the previous day. The country's total test number has surpassed 10 million, accounting for about a fifth of the country's population. It has carried out 10,409,949 tests since Jan. 3 last year.