New virus cases fall below 30 for 1st time in 50 days in S. Korea
The 27 new cases, detected Thursday and down from 39 a day ago, brought the nation's total infections to 10,450, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
South Korea recorded around 50 or fewer daily new cases for a fifth day in a row, a sharp drop from the Feb. 29 peak of 909 new cases. But health authorities remain on high alert over cluster infections at churches and hospitals, as well as new cases coming from overseas.
The nation's death toll from the coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year, rose by four to 208, according to the KCDC. Three other fatalities have been reported by local health authorities but have not been included in the official tally that is released once a day.
All the most recent deaths were in Daegu, the city that was hit the hardest by the outbreak.
In total, 7,117 people in South Korea have recovered from the virus.
Vice Health Minister Kim Ganglip said three weeks of social distancing led to Daegu reporting no new cases, but the virus could reemerge at any time if people relax social distancing.
Kim renewed calls for people to practice social distancing over the Easter weekend and early voting for next week's parliamentary elections.
He said the daily number does not reflect the exact scale of the outbreak, so it would be «reckless» for people to gauge the situation by the daily tally.
Local virology experts said that if the country halted its social distancing efforts now, thousands of new cases could occur across the country a month later, in the worst case scenario.
KCDC Director-General Jeong Eun-kyeong said a total of 91 people who had been declared cured tested positive for the virus again, accounting for more than 1 percent of total recoveries.
Jeong has said there might have been a «reactivation» of the virus among the people, not «reinfection,» because they tested positive soon after they were released from isolation facilities.
Health authorities have launched an investigation into the 91 people to determine whether they can spread the virus again, Jeong said.
The total number of cases reported in Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province reached 6,807 and 1,327, respectively.
Other major provinces and cities also reported infections, with Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province adding five and nine new cases, respectively. The capital city reported 599 confirmed cases as of late Friday, with close to 230 infections involving people who arrived from abroad.
The country also detected four new cases coming from overseas at border checkpoints, raising the country's total number of imported cases to 869.
Seeking to reduce the daily number of new infections to below 50, South Korea has extended strict guidelines on social distancing by two weeks to April 19. South Korea has tested 503,051 people so far.