An employee wearing a face mask to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus is cleaning the widows of his shoe store at a shopping street in Seoul on Saturday . South Korea on Saturday has reported 49 new cases of Covid-19, most of them in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area. - AP
SEOUL : South Korea on Saturday has reported 49 new cases of Covid-19 , most of them in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where health authorities have been struggling to slow transmissions linked to entertainment and leisure activities, church gatherings and low-income workers who couldn’t afford to stay home.
The figures released by the Korea Centre for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday brought national totals to 12,051 cases and 277 deaths. The KCDC said 44 of the new cases were reported from the greater capital area, which is home to half of the country’s 51 million people. KCDC Director Jung Eun-kyeong has pleaded with residents to stay home over the weekend, saying there was"high concern” that increased public activity would lead to a massive circulation of the virus. - AP