COVID-19: South Korea raises virus aware of 'grave' as infections surge
24 February, 2020
South Korea raised its alert on the coronavirus to the highest level on Sunday (Feb 23) after reporting three more deaths and 169 new infections.
"The COVID-19 incident faces a grave turning point. Another couple of days will be crucial," said President Moon Jae-in carrying out a government meeting on the virus.
"The government will improve the alert level to the highest degree of 'grave' according to experts' advice and drastically strengthen our response system," Moon said.
He also urged officials not to hesitate from taking "unprecedented powerful measures" to contain the outbreak.
South Korea has seen an instant surge in the amount of coronavirus cases in recent days after a cluster of infections emerged from a religious sect in the southern city of Daegu the other day.
The national toll of 602 cases is currently the best outside China, in addition to the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
The increase in the alert level allows the federal government to send extra resources to Daegu city and Cheongdo county, that have been designated "special care zones" on Friday.
The alert level also permits the federal government to forcibly prevent public activities and order the temporary closure of schools, medical ministry said, though it gave few information on immediate measures.
"The coronavirus virus is more contagious and spreads quickly during the early stage of the outbreak, and for that reason preemptive steps are needed considering a probability that the virus could develop to a nationwide spread from a community spread,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a news conference.
"We believe weekly to 10 days will be crucial to determine the spread of the coronavirus."
Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae told the news headlines conference that kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools would start the brand new semester one week later on Mar 9, from Mar 2.
The last time South Korea raised the alert level to "red" was 11 years back through the Influenza A, or H1N1 outbreak, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said.
Previously Sunday, the ruling Democratic Party asked the government for an extra budget and to free up emergency funds from the existing budget worth 3.4 trillion won (US$2.82 billion) to tackle the outbreak. Parliament will hold a plenary session on Monday to go over further measures.
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