<Anchor> The
cumulative number of confirmed cases in Korea, which was less than 15,000 until the middle of last month, is expected to exceed 20,000 today (1 day).
In the last 15 days or so, there are over 5,000 people in an instant.
It is already insufficient to screen out each of the confirmed cases and break the infection chain.
So, the health authorities asked for a short and bold end to the 2.5 steps that began in the Seoul metropolitan area.
Reporter Han Ji-yeon reports.
<Reporter>
In step 2.5 of social distancing from last Sunday to the 6th of this month, citizens generally expressed sympathy for the step 2 of strengthened distancing while complaining of some discomfort.
[Soojin Cho/Jung-gu, Seoul: Even if many people are uncomfortable, drinking inside is at risk of spreading, so I would like everyone to protect it.] The
quarantine authorities actively distancing the people so that this measure, which involves pain and inconvenience, can lead to a reversal. I appealed for participation.
[Eun-kyung Jung/Director of Disease Control: The reinforced two-stage social distancing should be completed in bold and short to achieve the effect of quarantine and reduce damage to a minimum.] Be
cautious about the trend of decreasing the number of new confirmed patients to 200
.
We evaluated that the effect is showing.
However, there are concerns that concurrent group infections are still continuing across the country, and the number of cases in which the path of infection is unknown over the past two weeks exceeds 20%, and that epidemiological investigation capabilities are approaching the limit.
In particular, the number of gastric and severe patients more than doubled from last week is a big concern for the quarantine authorities.
Some of the claims that the entire church in the metropolitan area should be subjected to diagnostic tests, drew a line saying that it is important to minimize contact and exposure through non-face-to-face worship.