Seoul’s daily COVID-19 cases hit record high 154 as cluster infections pop up

The number of cases reported Wednesday totaled 154, breaking the previous high of 151 on Aug. 18, according to the data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Virus cases in the capital have sharply spiked following cluster infections related to churches and a mass rally in central Seoul on Aug. 15. Daily cases have mostly remained in the triple digits after dipping to 97 on Sunday.

The latest infections came from new clusters in the city's southwestern area.

Twenty-three new infections were traced to an apartment building in Guro Ward, raising the relevant caseload to 28. The figure includes infections at a meat factory in Geumcheon Ward where a resident works. Twenty workers have so far tested positive.

Some 500 residents live in the Guro apartment. Health authorities tested 436 of them at a temporary screening center set up near the complex. A total of 245 have tested negative, and others are waiting for their results.

All products made at the relevant meat factory will be disposed, Park said, adding that there has been no case of the virus spreading through food products.

New infections were also identified at churches across the capital, a hospital in the western ward of Gangseo and a sports education institution in northern Seoul, according to the data.

Of the 154 new cases, 65, or 42.2 percent, came from unknown infection routes, keeping authorities on edge over the new coronavirus silently spreading through these infections.

«To ease the spread, it is important to swiftly trace the routes of patients that have not yet been identified. We plan to prioritize expanding the task force for epidemiological study and block the infectious sources,» Park Yoo-mi, the city's director of public health, said in a livestreamed press briefing.

On concerns raised by some experts that the mass infections at the Guro apartment building could have been caused by the virus spreading through air vents or other pipes, the city government said a detailed examination and sample taking disproved such fears.

«Samples taken from the vents and pipes of people that contracted COVID-19 showed no signs of the virus, an indication that the transmission did not occur through this channel,» an official said.

This is in line with an earlier view expressed by Kwon Joon-wook, deputy director at the KCDC, who said the possibility of infection through such routes is «not that high.»

Kwon also advised people to keep their masks on in elevators to minimize risks of possible infection.

On Thursday, South Korea reported 441 new cases, including 434 local infections, raising the country's total caseload to 18,706, according to the KCDC.

It marked the first time that the country's daily virus cases surpassed the 400 threshold since March 7, when mass outbreaks were reported in the southeastern region of North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu.

The government recently placed all of South Korea under Level Two social distancing guidelines, the second-highest in a three-tier system, on concerns over a mass outbreak.