Coronavirus: South Korea extends social distancing to limit new daily cases to 50

The country has largely been able to bring the epidemic under control, but clusters in churches, nursing homes, hospitals continue to emerge

The health minister says it is still ‘too early to be at ease’, with a recent spike in imported cases prompting authorities to cancel the reopening of schools

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A couple wearing masks ride on a bicycle at a Han River Park in Seoul on April 4, 2020. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:56pm, 4 Apr 2020Updated: 10:58pm, 4 Apr 2020

South Korea on Saturday said it would extend its intensive social distancing campaign by two weeks in a bid to curb the rate of coronavirus infections to around 50 a day.

The country has largely managed to bring under control Asia’s largest epidemic outside China with around 100 or fewer new daily cases. But smaller outbreaks in churches, hospitals and nursing homes, as well as infections among travellers, continue to emerge.

This week, the government has been gauging whether it should extend a 15-day intensive social distancing policy it implemented on March 21, under which high-risk facilities were urged to close and religious, sports and entertainment gatherings were banned.

But it is “too early to be at ease”, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said, citing a recent spike in imported cases and small cluster infections which also prompted the government to cancel the reopening of schools next week.

“Our goal is to be able to control infections in a way that our health and medical system, including personnel and sickbeds, can handle them at usual levels,” Park told a briefing after an government meeting on the coronavirus.

“If the number goes down to 50 or lower, stable treatment of the patients including the critically ill will be possible without much pressure on the system,” he said.

The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 94 new cases on Saturday, taking South Korea’s tally to 10,156. The death toll rose by nine to 183, while more than 300 recovered from the virus for a total of 6,325.

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