SEOUL, March 12, 2020 (BSS/XINHUA) – South Korea confirmed 114 more cases
of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Thursday local time,
raising the total number of infections to 7,869.
Five more deaths were reported, lifting the death toll to 66. The total
fatality rate rose to 0.84 percent.
Forty-five more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full
recovery, raising the combined number to 333.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) decided to
update the data once a day at 10:00 a.m. local time from March 10, after
having announced it twice a day.
The virus infection soared for the past weeks, with 7,838 new cases
reported from Feb. 19 to March 11. The country has raised its four-tier virus
alert to the highest “red” level.
The total number of infections in Daegu, about 300 km southeast of Seoul,
and its surrounding North Gyeongsang province increased to 5,867 and 1,143
respectively. It accounted for about 90 percent of the total.
The numbers in Seoul and its adjacent Gyeonggi province came to 212 and
178 each.
Daegu became the epicenter of the viral spread here as the biggest cluster
of infections was found in the metropolis with a population of 2.5 million.
Daegu has been designated by the government as a “special care zone.”
The Daegu cluster was closely linked to the church services of a homegrown
minor religious sect, called Sincheonji, in Daegu. Members of the sect are
known to sit on the floor closely side by side during church services.
Since Jan. 3, the country has tested more than 234,000 people, among whom
209,402 tested negative for the virus and 17,727 were being checked.