S. Korea reports 621 COVID-19 cases on Wed. with mass outbreak at factories

남양주 진관산단 공장서 114명 집단감염... 아산 귀뚜라미공장에서도 직원들 설 고향에 집단감염 발생

The nation's daily coronavirus tally shot back up past 600 for the first time over a month.
As this comes after distancing curbs were relaxed, authorities warn against loosening enforcement of required measures.
Bae Eun-ji has our top story.
South Korea confirmed 621 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the first time in over a month that the figure has surpassed the 600-mark.
More than 70-percent of the locally transmitted cases came from Seoul and its surrounding areas,... but cluster infections have been reported outside the capital region.
Over a hundred cases so far has been linked to a mass outbreak at a gas boiler factory in Asan, Chungcheongnam-do Province.
Most of those infected worked in the same building.
Health officials speculate the virus may have spread through electric fan heaters in the poorly ventilated building... as the virus was detected in the building's heaters, vending machines, and the conference room table.
Another cluster infection was reported at a plastic factory in the city of Namyangju, Gyeonggi-do Province.
Out of a total of 158 workers, 114 tested positive for the virus... many of them foreign laborers who lived together in a dormitory.
An infectious disease expert says that it is easy for the virus to spread in facilities such as these.
"Many factory workers live together in dormitories. If one person is infected within these kind of facilities, it can quickly lead to a mass outbreak... as the patient will have had a lot of close contact with others."
The government said if the rapid spread of the virus continues, the level of social distancing may be raised again.
"The caseload has been on the rise since the Lunar New Year holidays. It's hard to tell if this is leading to a third wave of the outbreak, or just a rise in cases because of more testing."
There were four more deaths on Wednesday, raising the death toll to 1-thousand-538.
Bae Eun-ji, Arirang News.

#COVID19 #infection #factory

2021-02-17, 22:00 (KST)