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New corona19 confirmed patients in Korea recorded three digits for 11 consecutive days until yesterday (24th), adding up to 3,000. Yesterday was 266, which was less than the previous day, but it seems that the number of tests itself was small. As the quarantine authorities are considering raising social distancing to the third stage, many experts say that the distancing should be raised to the third stage right now. This week is a turning point.

Reporter Kim Hyung-rae reports.

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13,000 people were diagnosed with Corona 19 in one day last Sunday.

Last Thursdays and Fridays exceeded 20,000 cases, down 30% on Saturdays and 40% on Sundays.

The percentage of people who have tested positive is about 2%, up from last week.

This is why we cannot be optimistic that the number of confirmed cases has decreased.

[Jeong Eun-kyung/Director of Disease Control: There was a tendency in the past that the number of patients decreased slightly on Mondays, Tuesdays, and early weeks after the weekend. Some decrease in the number of patients is believed to have such an effect... .]

For two weeks from the 9th to the 22nd, the number of domestic outbreaks increased more than 13 times and the number of group outbreaks more than 3 times compared to the previous two weeks.

Nine professional academic organizations including the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases issued a statement saying that the second step of social distancing is insufficient to cope with the current situation and that the three step upgrade is inevitable.

President Moon Jae-in also said that if we can't catch the current spread, we have no choice but to raise the stage of distancing.

[President Moon Jae-in: If we can't stop it at this stage, we have no choice but to upgrade to the 3rd stage of social distancing. I hope everyone will work together to make sure it doesn't get to the worst.]

Health officials have called for a delay or cancellation of travel plans this week.