S. Korea adds 13 new virus cases; club-linked cases flatten

Yonhap via The Korea Herald/Asia News Network

SEOUL — South Korea added 13 new cases of the new coronavirus on Sunday with nightclub-linked infections showing signs of a slowdown over the weekend, health authorities said Sunday.

The new cases, detected Saturday, brought the country’s total to 11,050, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

It marked the fewest daily cases since Itaewon, a multicultural nightlife district in Seoul, emerged as a hotbed for coronavirus cluster infections. The country added 19 new cases a day earlier.

The new cluster infections have put South Korea at the critical juncture of whether domestic spread of the virus will continue or not.

After a patient infected with the COVID-19 virus visited multiple clubs in Itaewon in early May, the country experienced a resurgence in the number of new patients, leading to the monthly peak of 35 last week.

Around 5,500 people were estimated to have visited affected clubs in Itaewon between April 24 and May 6. With more than a thousand people still being out of contact, health authorities are remaining vigilant over another possible boom in local infections.

South Korea reported no new deaths, keeping the death toll at 262.

The fatality rate reached 2.37 percent, with most of the deaths being reported from those aged 70 and older. No deaths were reported from people aged 29 or younger, although they account for nearly 35 of the total infections.

The total caseload tied to visits to clubs and bars in Itaewon reached 162 as of Saturday noon.

The total number of people released from quarantine after full recoveries stood at 9,888, up 37 from the previous day.

The figures indicate nearly 90 percent of the patients fully recovered from the disease.

The nation, with a population of 50 million, has carried out 747,653 tests since Jan. 3, including 7,000 from a day earlier. South Korea reported its first COVID-19 case, from a Chinese person, on Jan. 20.

Imported cases, which used to be the biggest threat for South Korea’s quarantine operations before the clubbers’ group infections came up to the surface, rose by seven to reach 1,167.

Despite the infections from Itaewon, South Korea has made no major changes to the relaxed social distancing scheme.

Amid growing concerns over an irrevocable impact on the economy, South Korea gave the go-ahead to the normalization of public facilities and other business establishments under the condition that they follow basic sanitation measures. Clubs and karaoke rooms are excluded in some areas.

High school seniors will return to classrooms starting Wednesday, a week later than earlier scheduled, and students of other grades will gradually resume their school years by June 8.

Health authorities here earlier said there has been no “explosive” spread of club-linked infections, although they remain vigilant over risks of chain transmissions.

Should the country observe no further boom in the number of cases over the weekend, South Korea could safely say that it has brought the Itaewon-linked cases under the control of quarantine authorities, they added. Yonhap