Korea’s new Covid-19 cases exceeded 50 for two consecutive days on Wednesday, as local infections spiked in the greater Seoul area.
The nation recorded 56 new virus cases -- 47 local infections and nine foreign arrivals -- raising the cumulative caseload to 14,770 as of midnight Wednesday. The number of imported cases decreased, but the daily total increased because of community spreads in Seoul and its vicinity.
Thirty-one more people recovered, pushing the number of cured patients to 13,817, with 648 receiving treatment, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. The death toll remained at 305 as no one died of Covid-19 on Wednesday. The nation has tested 1,654,898 suspected patients since Jan. 3.
Forty-one patients were infected in the Seoul metro region, two in Busan, and one in Gwangju, Ulsan, South Chungcheong Province, and South Gyeongsang Province.
Infections continued to spread in churches, traditional markets, schools, and nursing hospitals. Placing the public health authorities on extra alert were group infections involving one of the nation’s largest fast-food franchises.
Eleven staff members of Lotteria had tested positive as of 6 p.m. Wednesday since the first patient living in Goyang, just north of Seoul, was confirmed of infection on Tuesday.
The health officials are concerned that new cases continued to occur in restaurants, cafes, and traditional markets where an unspecified number of people visit and use.
The virus has also spread to schools, driving education officials into an emergency as the second semester of the elementary, middle, and high schools is just around the corner.
One more person related to a church in Goyang tested positive, increasing the cumulative caseload linked to it to 34. The number of confirmed cases related to another church in Gimpo, just west of Seoul, also increased by five to reach 17.
Additional cases continue to be reported in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, where five high schoolers have been confirmed of infection.
Of the nine imported cases, two patients came from the U.S., Philippines, and Iraq and one from Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, and Algeria. Three foreign patients tested positive at port and airport checkpoints. The other six cases were confirmed while they were under self-quarantine.
The total number of imported cases has reached 2,600, accounting for 17.6 percent of the total caseload.