Seoul imposes stricter social distancing rules
S. Korea registers more than 300 new cases for the fith straight day; Japan scraps ‘Goto’ tourism campaign; China reports 17 new COVID-19 cases; 652 prisoners test positive in Sri Lanka
South Korea is imposing stricter social distancing rules in the greater Seoul area to fight a coronavirus resurgence, as the country registered more than 300 new cases for the fith straight day.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said on Sunday that authorities have found 62 virus clusters in the past two weeks.
He said the toughened distancing guidelines in the Seoul area will be enforced for two weeks starting on Tuesday.
Under the rules, nightclubs and other highrisk entertainment facilities must shut down and late-night dining at restaurants will be banned.
Customers won’t be allowed to drink or eat inside coffee shops, internet cafes or fitness centers, while audiences at sports events will be limited to 10% of the stadium’s capacity.
South Korea reported 330 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, raising its total to 30,733, including 505 deaths.
Japan’s Health Ministry says the daily tally of confirmed coronavirus cases hit a record for the fourth straight day on Sunday, at 2,508.
Japan has had fewer than 2,000 coronavirus-related deaths so far, avoiding the toll of harder hit nations. But fears are growing about another surge.
A flurry of criticism from opposition legislators and the public has slammed the government for being too slow in halting its “Goto” tourism campaign, which encouraged travel and dining out with discounts.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Saturday scrapped the campaign, but only ater many people had already made travel reservations for a three-day Thanksgiving weekend in Japan. Airports and restaurants have been packed. Some say the government should have offered to pay for cancellations, or stepped up PCR testing instead, if the goal is to keep the economy going amid a pandemic.
Mainland China reported 17 new COVID-19 cases on Nov.21, up from 16 the previous day, with three cases of local transmission and nine cases originating overseas, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.
Authorities are conducting mass testing and shuting down schools ater three new domestically transmited cases in the past 24 hours - two in northern Inner Mongolia province and one in Shanghai.
Inner Mongolia’s health authority said on Saturday it had confirmed two new coronavirus cases in Hulunbuir city on the Chinese border with Russia.
The city of Manzhouli, in Inner Mongolia, will start testing all its residents on Sunday, a day ater the two cases were discovered. The city has suspended classes and shut public venues, telling residents to not gather for dinner banquets.
Local authorities in Shanghai found one more case on Saturday ater testing 15,416 people following recent locally transmited cases.
Shanghai’s health authority later reported two new locally transmited cases in the city on Sunday, both connected to the Pudong cases.
The city is testing all residents in the Pudong New Area district. China is already conducting mass testing for up to 3 million residents in the northern city of Tianjin ater five cases were found there last week. The total number of confirmed cases in China is 86,431. The official death toll stands at 4,634.
Mainland China reported another 11 asymptomatic cases on Nov. 21, down from 18 on the previous day.
Authorities in Sri Lanka said more than 600 coronavirus cases have been detected from the country’s highly congested prisons as infections surge in the capital and its suburbs.
A total of 652 cases have been detected at five prisons in the island nation, including 609 inmates and 43 prison officers.
Sri Lankan prisons are highly congested, with more than 26,000 inmates crowded in facilities with a total capacity of 10,000.
Sri Lanka has seen a fresh outbreak of the virus since last month, when two clusters - one centered at a garment factory and the other at a fish market - emerged in the capital, Colombo, and its suburbs.
There have been 16,251 confirmed cases from the two clusters. Sri Lanka has had a total of 19,771 cases, including 83 fatalities.