South Korea wages ‘all-out responses’ to coronavirus
586 new cases, 1 death reported; Samsung, Hyundai shut one plant each; K-pop star placed in self-quarantine; China adds 573 infections, Malaysia 4; last crew members leave cruise ship
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Sunday the government was waging “all-out responses” to contain the novel coronavirus as the country added 586 more cases, taking the total to 3,736.
“The government is now waging all-out responses after raising the crisis alert to the highest level,” Moon said at an Independence Movement Day ceremony, scaled down due to the outbreak.
“We will be able to overcome the COVID-19 outbreak and revive our shrunken economy,” he added.
Churches were, with many holding online services.
Samsung Electronics suspended operations at its domestic smartphone plant in Gumi – 200km southeast of Seoul -- on Saturday for the second time in a week, after a third employee tested positive for the virus.
Auto giant Hyundai Motor also stopped operations at one of its Ulsan plants after an employee tested positive for the coronavirus.
Concerts by K-pop superstars BTS and the
World Team Table Tennis Championships were among cancelled events, while sports leagues have modified their seasons to contain the virus.
K-pop star CHUNG HA was placed in selfquarantine when a member of her staff tested positive after visiting Italy last month, Yonhap news agency reported. The singer tested negative.
Nearly 90 per cent of the cases were in Daegu, the centre of the country’s outbreak, and neighbouring North Gyeongsang province, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( KCDC) said in a statement.
The country reported one more death on Sunday, taking the total death toll to 18.
Over 260,000 people associated with the Shincheonji Church of Jesus were put under obseravtion.
Around 60 percent of the cases were linked to the entity, the KCDC said.
“Until now, the COVID-19 outbreak in the country has been excessively led by a specific group,” said KCDC vice director Kwon Jun-wook.
Shincheonji apologised on Sunday on behalf of its members who had kept their religion secret, adding: “It will be hard for our devotees to reveal their identity when political leaders are recklessly criticising Shincheonji as the epicentre.”
Malaysia reported four new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 29.
All of the new cases were among Malaysian nationals, one of whom had travelled to China while another had travelled recently to Milan, northern Italy, the health ministry said.
Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional said one of the new cases was one of its employees, without giving further details about the person.
Meanwhile, all crew members from a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship off Japan have now disembarked, the country’s health minister said.
Indonesia has the resources to cope with a coronavirus outbreak, the director of its leading infectious diseases hospital said, defending detection procedures, where no cases have been reported.
“We can’t doubt our skills and the facts we gather,” said Muhammad Syahril, director of the
Sulianti Saroso hospital in Jakarta, the capital, when asked why Indonesia had detected no cases.
“If we don’t have cases, we don’t have cases,” he said in an interview at the hospital on Friday. “Why would we cover it up?”
China reported the biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases since Feb.22 on Sunday as more infections emerged among prison inmates in the epicentre of the outbreak, but officials emphasised the overall situation continues to improve.
Beijing on Sunday reported two new cases: both are Chinese nationals who recently returned from Iran, where the coronavirus cases have multiplied quickly.
A total of 573 news infections were reported on Feb.29, compared with 427 a day earlier, according to the National Health Commission. Some 565 of these were in Wuhan, where the outbreak emerged late last year.
The official China News wire service reported that 233 of the Wuhan cases were reported from the city’s prison system.