ANKARA – South Korea has mobilised its military and shut down schools as coronavirus cases peaked over the weekend.
The country reported 1,030 Covid-19 infections on Sunday – its highest since the outbreak. New cases, however, fell to 718 on Monday.
The military said it has deployed 379 of its Special Warfare officers to public health centres to aid the government in handling the Covid-19 situation, Anadolu Agency, quoting the state-run Yonhap News Agency report, said.
Schools, meanwhile, have been directed to hold online classes.
Most of the deployment has been made in Seoul and its surrounding areas.
The army said that soldiers will conduct contact tracing, data management and sample transfers for virus tests for two months.
South Korea has so far reported 43,484 Covid-19 infections, including 587 deaths. As many as 3.39 million virus tests have been conducted, 3.26 million of which were found negative.
The government has tightened social distancing measures, currently at level 2.5, the second-highest under the five-tier Covid-19 alert system, in the Seoul capital area last week. – Bernama, December 14, 2020
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