South Korea tightens coronavirus restrictions amid spike in cases

South Korea reported 246 new cases on Tuesday, mostly from the capital area, pushing its total for the last five days to 959.

South Korea will ban large public gatherings and shut down churches and nightspots in the Seoul metropolitan area amid an alarming surge in infections that health officials describe as the country’s biggest crisis since the emergence of Covid-19.

In a nationally televised announcement on Tuesday, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said strengthening social distancing restrictions for the area, which is home to half of the country’s 51 million people, was inevitable because a failure to slow transmissions there could result in a major outbreak nationwide.