SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea counted its fourth straight day of triple-digit increases in new coronavirus cases Monday as the government urged people to stay home and curb travel.
A woman wears a mask inside a glass-covered bus stop in which a thermal imaging camera, UV sterilizer, air conditioner, CCTV and digital signage are set, to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in Seoul, South Korea, August 14, 2020. REUTERS/Heo Ran – RC2IDI9ACVOU
The government had drawn up a special holiday on Monday with hopes of spurring domestic consumption.
But as infections in the capital region increase, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo urged people to stay home and for residents in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province to avoid visiting other parts of the country for two weeks.
The 197 new cases announced by South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought the nation’s total to 15,515, including 305 deaths.
The 279 new cases reported Sunday was South Korea’s biggest single-day jump since early May amid concerns about an outbreak in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area.
The KCDC said 167 of the new cases came from the greater capital region, where about half of South Korea’s 51 million people live.
Health workers have been struggling to track infections, but churches have emerged as a major source.
More than 300 have been linked to a northern Seoul church led by a conservative pastor who has frequently led anti-government protests against liberal President Moon Jae-in, including a rally attended by thousands of demonstrators in downtown Seoul on Saturday despite official pleas for them to stay home.
The government is pressing charges against the pastor, Jun Kwang-hun, for allegedly disrupting anti-virus efforts by falsely reporting the church’s members and discouraging followers from getting tested.
Health workers have so far tested 2,000 of the church’s members and plan to test 2,000 more.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
— Japan’s top automaker Toyota is seeing more cases among employees as coronavirus infections climb in Japan, partly because of a gradual increase in testing. Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday 20 employees were confirmed with COVID-19 so far, seven of them this month.
The first cases were reported in March. Spokeswoman Kayo Doi said most have returned to work and none had been seriously ill. Toyota facilities are having office staff work from home, set up longer periods between shifts at plants and taken other social distancing measures.
All plants are back up in Japan, although some production was temporarily halted. Japan’s virus situation has been relatively moderate, but cases continue to rise. Japan said Monday 1,017 new cases were confirmed Sunday, and 11 deaths. The nation has had about 1,100 deaths from COVID-19.
— Australia’s hard-hit Victoria state on Monday recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic with 25 coronavirus fatalities.
The death toll surpasses the previous 24-hour record of 21 set last week. Victoria’s Health Department recorded 282 new cases, slightly more than 279 new infections on Sunday but maintaining a downward trend. “We just can’t allow any sense of complacency to creep in here.
This is an ultra-marathon and we just have to keep pushing forward each and every day,” Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said.
— Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has delayed New Zealand’s elections due to the coronavirus outbreak in Auckland.
The elections that were to be held next month will now be held on Oct. 17. Opposition parties had sought a delay after the virus outbreak prompted a two-week lockdown in Auckland and halted election campaigning.
New Zealand had gone more than three months without any domestic virus cases before the cluster emerged in its largest city. It’s now infected 49 people, but all of the cases are thought to be connected, giving health officials hope the virus hasn’t spread beyond the cluster.