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Reuters

Park Chan-kyong

The coronavirus  outbreak in South Korea is showing signs of slowing with the pace of growth of new infections falling for the third straight day, the country’s top government minister said on Monday.
The country has 7,478 confirmed virus patients and 51 people have died from the Covid-19 illness.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun’s remarks came hours after director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted that the country was “making progress in fighting #COVID19”.
“It is still too cautious, but I can see some hope that we may approach an inflection point in the near future through cooperation of the central and local governments, the medical sector and citizens,” Chung said.
Coronavirus: Japan’s tourism industry in ‘survival mode’ as travellers stay away
President Moon Jae-in said South Korea can enter the “phase of stability” soon if it continues to reduce the number of new cases.
“We must maintain this trend,” he told a meeting of senior aides. “We’ve come this far thanks to the citizens who were united and cooperated well with the government.
“But it’s too early to be optimistic ... Please be a little bit more patient and stay away from mass gatherings such as religious events.”
On Sunday, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said the outbreak – once the biggest globally outside China – appeared to be “a little bit stagnant”.
While South Korea had averaged more than 500 new virus infections daily last week, the tally had fallen below that for the past three days, with 367 cases on Saturday and 248 cases on Sunday. On Monday, South Korea reported 165 new cases.
About 60 per cent of confirmed cases have been linked to the controversial Shincheonji Church’s branch in the southeastern city of Daegu, which, with a population of 2.5 million, is the country’s fourth-largest city.
Nine in 10 confirmed cases in South Korea have been found in Daegu and its surrounding North Gyeongsang Province.
Daegu and two neighbouring areas have been declared “special care zones” by the government, which has sent extra medical supplies and staff and deployed military troops to disinfect the streets.




KCDC director Jeong Eun-kyeong said the decrease appeared to be due to the fact that authorities were nearing the end of testing more than 200,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which was at the centre of the outbreak.
But the KCDC warned the worst was not over as small infection clusters were still springing up in other parts of the country.
What ‘wonderful laboratory’ South Korea can teach world about Covid-19
“We put the Shincheonji church followers in quarantine to prevent the further spread of and tested them, and many of confirmed cases came from them,” Jeong told reporters during a briefing in Seoul. “The testing of the church followers is almost finished, so the number of confirmed cases has dropped accordingly.”
South Korea has conducted one of the most ambitious coronavirus testing programmes in the world, with thousands of people being tested every day, even at drive-through centres. Health officials have tested a total of 181,384 people suspected of having the virus, with 162,008 testing negative.


Facing shortages of face masks, the government will impose a rationing system to limit the number of masks each person can buy each week, starting on Monday.
The government has imposed export restrictions on masks and urged factories to increase production.
On Monday, South Korea and Japan began enforcing strict entry restrictions against each other’s citizens, mutually suspending a visa waiver programme amid fraying bilateral ties.
More than 100 countries have imposed entry restrictions on South Korean nationals.
In North Korea, diplomats from several embassies began leaving the country following weeks of tight quarantine restrictions imposed by Pyongyang over the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Hong Kong group has links to Shincheonji sect at centre of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak
North Korea has not confirmed a single infection but has imposed strict rules, including closing its borders and putting thousands of its own people into isolation. Hundreds of foreigners have been subject to a virtual lockdown in their own premises, and the restrictions were finally eased last week when more than 200 foreigners were allowed to leave their compounds.
Russian ambassador Alexander Matsegora described the conditions as “morally crushing”.
Those restrictions were finally eased last week after more than a month, when more than 200 foreigners were allowed to leave their compounds.
Swedish ambassador Joachim Bergstrom tweeted a selfie from the city centre with the caption: “I have never been happier standing on Kim Il-sung Square.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse


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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: cautious optimism in South Korea as new infections fall for third straight day

Medical workers rest at a screening clinic in Suwon, South Korea. Photo: Xinhua

Coronavirus: in South Korea, mounting anger, rumours over Shincheonji church as cases rise

Workers sanitise a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu, South Korea. Photo: Reuters

A man wearing a face mask walks in front of the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southeastern city of Daegu on February 24, 2020. - South Korea reported 161 more coronavirus cases on February 24, taking the nationwide total to 763 and making it the world's largest total outside China. The country has seen a rapid surge in the number of coronavirus cases -- adding more than 700 cases in less than a week -- since a cluster of infections emerged from a religious sect in the southern city of Daegu. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

A man wearing a face mask rides an electric scooter in front of the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Anger and frustration at the controversial church has grown, after a cluster of infections were linked to it. Photo: AFP

Hong Kong group has links to Shincheonji sect at centre of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak

A "peace education" event held by Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light, a self-described peace organisation linked to the South Korean religious sect Shincheonji, at Yan Chai Hospital Chiu Tsang Hok Wan Primary School in Tsing Yi. Photo: Twitter

A screen shot of a video of an event held by Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light, a self-described peace organisation linked to the South Korean religious sect Shincheonji, at the University of Hong Kong. Photo: Twitter

Coronavirus: two flats linked to Shincheonji members quarantined, as cases in South Korea cross 7,000

An aerial view of a residential building where 46 residents tested positive for coronavirus in Daegu. Photo: EPA-EFE

A worker in protective gear makes her way to an apartment building which has entered cohort isolation after a mass infection was reported amid the rise in confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Daegu, South Korea, March 7, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

An aerial view of a residential building where 46 residents tested positive for coronavirus in Daegu. Photo: Yonhap/AFP

Coronavirus: Singapore authorities investigate ‘deceptive recruitment’ at secretive Shincheonji church at centre of South Korea’s outbreak

Government officials close down a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Gwangju, South Korea. Photo: Newsis via AP

A man wearing a face mask rides a bicycle in front of the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on February 27, 2020. - The secretive South Korean religious group at the centre of the country's new coronavirus outbreak is a sprawling network so wealthy it can mobilise thousands of believers to hold Pyongyang-style mass performances at Seoul's Olympic stadium. More than half of the country's nearly 1,600 infections are linked to Shincheonji followers. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

TOPSHOT - A South Korean health worker sprays disinfectant as part of preventive measures against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at a residential area near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on February 27, 2020. - South Korea now has 1,766 cases, the highest number in the world outside China, where the disease first emerged in December and has since spread to dozens of countries. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

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South Korea has 7,478 virus patients and 51 people have died, but the pace of growth of new cases has slowed
The country has conducted one of the most ambitious virus testing programmes in the world, testing more than 180,000 people



South Korea has 7,478 virus patients and 51 people have died, but the pace of growth of new cases has slowed, raising hopes the worst might be over soon.


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