COVID-19 Cases in Seoul Metropolitan Area at 31... Fourth Highest Level in the Past Month (Update)

New Patients Below 50 for Three Consecutive Days, but Sporadic Small-Scale Cluster Infections Occur

On the 31st, two enrolled students were confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), leading to the closure of Yangji Elementary School in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province. On the 1st, the school gate remained firmly shut. The confirmed students are grandchildren of the pastor of Ilsim Vision Church in Anyang and had traveled to Jeju Island from the 25th to the 27th with 12 pastors, church members, and families from Gunpo and Anyang areas. Notably, one of the confirmed students, a second grader, attended school on the 28th. In response, health and education authorities decided to suspend attendance for two weeks from that day to prevent the spread of the infectious disease and to protect the health of students and staff. Photo by Kim Hyun-min, Anyang kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporters Choi Dae-yeol and Jo Hyun-ui] On the 1st, 35 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed. Among them, 30 patients are presumed to have been infected in the local community, and the remaining 5 cases, including 2 detected during quarantine, are imported cases.

According to data compiled by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters as of midnight on the same day, 18 new patients were identified in Incheon and 12 in Gyeonggi Province. Including 1 case in Seoul, the metropolitan area accounted for 31 of the new confirmed cases, making up the majority. Additionally, 1 case each was reported in Daegu and Jeonnam.

The number of new patients has eased since the significant increase on the 28th of last month (79 cases), following the outbreak at the Bucheon Coupang Logistics Center. Applying the criterion of fewer than 50 new daily confirmed cases, which is one of the standards for maintaining the daily life quarantine system, this marks the third consecutive day since the 30th of last month (39 cases). However, small-scale cluster infections with unclear transmission routes, such as in academies and religious gatherings, are occurring here and there, so health authorities still consider the situation to be "a tense phase."

In particular, the number of new patients in the metropolitan area remains considerable. Looking at the past month, the metropolitan area recorded the fourth highest number of new cases on this day, following the 28th (67 cases), 29th (58 cases), and 27th (36 cases) of last month.

The number of patients released from isolation the previous day increased by 17, and the number of deaths increased by 1, bringing the total number of patients released from isolation to 10,422. The number of patients currently isolated and receiving treatment rose by 17 from the previous day to 810. A total of 10,569 diagnostic tests were conducted yesterday.