World News Desk!!! New cases of the novel coronavirus rose to more than 20,000 on Wednesday as South Korea eased restrictions related to COVID-19. Yonhap news agency quoted the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) as saying that a total of 20,197 new cases have been registered in the country, including 26 people who came from abroad. Thus now the number of active cases of Kovid-19 in the country has increased to 3,12,12,598. Earlier in the data released on Tuesday, 15,741 new cases were reported. According to the data released on Wednesday, the death toll from Kovid-19 increased to 34,505 with eight new deaths across the country in the last 24 hours.
The KDCA said the number of seriously ill patients increased to 142 from 137 a day earlier. Park Min-soo, South Korea’s second vice health minister, said daily infections have increased since the mask-wearing order was lifted in March. New daily cases rose three percent last week compared to a week ago, although the virus situation has been managed in a stable manner. South Korea ended the mandatory wearing of masks on public transport in March. This was done keeping in mind the demand of the people to return to the pre-pandemic normalcy. However, it is still mandatory to wear a mask in medical institutions, pharmacy and places prone to infection. The government is also considering reducing the mandatory Covid-19 isolation period from the present seven to five days.
–IANS
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