South Korea holds national university entrance exam amid rising Covid infections

A student wearing a face mask prays before the start of the annual university entrance examination amid the coronavirus pandemic at an exam hall in Seoul, South Korea (Kim Hong-Ji/AP)

Hundreds of thousands of masked students in South Korea, including 41 confirmed Covid-19 patients, took the country’s highly competitive university entrance exam.

About 426,340 students sat the one-day exam at about 1,380 sites across the nation on Thursday, including hospitals and other medical facilities.