<Anchor> The



spread of COVID-19 in July is scary. Yesterday (3rd), there were more than 700 confirmed cases. As of Saturday, it was the highest this year. In addition, as the number of confirmed cases entering overseas is rapidly increasing, it is also urgent to block the mutant virus.



First news, this is reporter Jeon Yeon-nam.



<Reporter>



A furniture store in Gyeonggi-do.



Every alley of the store is crowded with family visitors.



[Furniture store official: It rained this week, so there were a lot of (people), and last week there wasn't that many.] The



restaurant in the department store was also crowded with people.



It was raining all day long, and crowds flocked to the indoor multi-use facility.



The spread of COVID-19 has not stopped even on holidays, when the number of tests is drastically reduced.



The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 that occurred yesterday was 743, the first 700 of this year as of Saturday and the highest since December last year.



Additional confirmed cases continue from existing collective infection sources such as restaurants, language schools, and pubs in the metropolitan area, and new cases of infection are emerging in daily life, such as indoor sports facilities and daycare centers.



About 8 out of 10 cases in Korea have come out of the metropolitan area for the fifth day.



[Sohn Young-rae/Chairman of Social Strategy Team, Central Accident Management Headquarters: This is a rapidly increasing aspect. Tensions over quarantine are lowering. The cooperation of the residents of the metropolitan area and those who have not been vaccinated is important.] The



average daily number of confirmed cases in the metropolitan area over the past week has also exceeded 500 for three days in a row.



In the new distancing scheme, this is a three-level range.



To make matters worse, the number of confirmed cases imported from abroad also surged to 80 in nearly a year, raising concerns about the influx of 'mutated viruses'.



The government said that the rate of infection in the metropolitan area is threatening, and urged each local government to strengthen quarantine measures to prevent it from spreading to non-metropolitan areas ahead of the holiday season.



(Video coverage: Kim Myung-gu, video editing: Hwang Ji-young)