Korea reported 950 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, the highest since the nation confirmed the first case on Jan. 20, with quarantine officials seriously considering lifting social distancing to the top level.
The daily tally included 928 local infections and pushed the cumulative caseload to 41,736 as of midnight Friday. Imported cases stood at 22.
The greater Seoul area accounted for more than 70 percent of the community spread. Infections in the capital city surpassed 300 for the first time. Seoul reported 359 cases, Gyeonggi Province, 268 cases, and Incheon 42 cases, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
Churches and nursing hospitals once again emerged as the epicenter of massive community spread. A church in southwestern Seoul reported 59 cases, and a nursing hospital in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, reported 67 cases in a single day. Busan reported the most cases outside of the capital area with 58, followed by Gangwon Province (36), Daegu (35), Ulsan (23) and North Chungcheong Province (21).
The virus's spread is also faster than the quarantine authorities predicted at the beginning of the week, 550 to 750 this week and more than 900 next week.
The sharp increase in cases comes even after the government upgraded its social distancing scheme to Level 2.5 in the Seoul metro region and Level 2 for the rest of the country from Tuesday.
Although the government has come up with additional measures every day, including the sharp increase of preemptive tests, the virus's spread seems unlikely to be broken for the time being, as there is a wide range of asymptomatic and latent infections in the capital city and its vicinity.
Epidemiological experts made a gloomy prediction that it would be difficult to contain the spread this winter when respiratory viruses usually increase due to the cold and dry weather, and people's immune systems generally weaken.
It took more than 80 days for the country to see its virus caseload increase from 20,000 to 30,000. However, it only took 20 days for the country to add another 10,000 cases after its tally surpassed 30,000 on Nov. 20.
At a task force meeting, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said if the nation fails to contain the current infection trend, the government will have no other options but to increase its social distancing scheme to the highest level.
“The government and local governments will focus on responding to the Covid-19 crisis with all available administrative power thinking there is no place to retreat,” Chung said. “The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters will do its best to protect the lives and safety of the people from the crisis of infectious diseases by controlling the situation and operating quarantine response system at the highest level.”
Chung stressed that the most urgent and top priority in the current situation is to secure enough beds.
“By fully mobilizing our medical resources, we will ensure that no confirmed patients are waiting to receive treatments,” he said. “We will utilize the available beds of all public hospitals and ask cooperation from private hospitals as well.
For the active participation of private hospitals, related ministries should consider additional measures to provide incentives, he added.
Prime Minister Chung also called for the public's cooperation to quarantine, saying that people's livelihoods will also be threatened if the quarantine collapses.
“We are now in a dire and extraordinary situation difficult to express in words,” he said.
“Considering the economic and social impact, we must stop the trend of spreading at this stage.”
Six more people died of Covid-19 to lift the death toll to 578. An additional 336 patients were freed from quarantine with full recovery, increasing the total to 31,493. The country has tested 3,349,864 people since Jan. 3.