South Korea has posted its second-highest daily number of coronavirus cases, as outbreaks at a prison, nursing homes and churches continued to grow, prompting the health minister to say the country was at a “crossroads of the third wave”. It comes as more countries restricted entry from the UK and South Africa amid fears about new Covid variants.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said there were 1,132 new coronavirus cases on Friday, not too far off the record of 1,241 logged on Christmas Eve.
“The virus is spreading whenever and wherever it wants,” the health minister, Kwon Deok-cheol, told an intra-agency meeting, adding that people were also being infected at small gatherings with friends and acquaintances.
“As we stand at the crossroads of the third wave, how we stop the spread hinges on how we spend this year-end and New Year period,” he said.
The government is expected to meet on Sunday to discuss whether it will tighten distancing rules to the toughest level for the greater Seoul area.
That would shut another 1.2m stores and allow only essential workers into offices. Curbs currently in place have closed night clubs, karaoke bars and other night entertainment venues as well as banned on-site dining after 9 pm.
Ahead of Christmas and New Year holidays, the government also banned gatherings of more than four people in the greater Seoul area and closed down ski resorts and other tourist spots.
South Korea had largely managed to control early major outbreaks with aggressive testing and contact tracing. But critics have faulted authorities for being over-confident and failing to properly prepare for the third and largest wave.
Japan tightened its rules for travellers from South Africa, refusing arrivals from Saturday over concerns of a new Covid variant. Japanese citizens and residents will be allowed in but will need to self-quarantine for 14 days, NHK reported.
Japan had already banned entry to travellers from the UK apart from returning Japanese nationals and residents over fears of the new variant there. On Friday Tokyo confirmed that five arrivals from the UK had tested positive to the variant, entering Japan between 18 and 21 December.
In the UK, millions faced tougher coronavirus restrictions from Saturday, as a Christmas reprieve on gatherings ended. In England, 6 million more people entered the toughest tier-4 restrictions, while new lockdowns began in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Wales, restrictions that were eased for Christmas Day were reimposed on Saturday.
On Christmas Day the UK recorded 570 new deaths within 28 days of testing positive for the virus, taking the UK’s total deaths within 28 days of a positive test to 70,195.
Concerns around the world mounted over the UK’s new variant, with Norway extending its ban on flights from Britain until 29 December. The ban was first imposed on 21 December. “It’s still possible that the flights will be suspended until after the New Year,” the ministry health ministry said.
In France, a man with the new Covid variant in the UK arrived home on 19 December. He was asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in Tours in central France, the ministry said late on Friday. The man was tested in a hospital on 21 December and later found positive for the strain.
Italian authorities detected the new strain in a patient in Rome. Italy reported just over 19,000 new infections on Friday and 459 deaths, the health ministry said. It took the country’s infections over 2m – only the eighth country to exceed that total.
The World Health Organization reported that nine cases of the new strain had been detected in Denmark and one each in the Netherlands and Australia
Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, said on Friday that as of next Monday all passengers coming into the country would have to provide proof of negative tests for coronavirus carried out within 72 hours of their arrival.
Koca said passengers who failed to provide a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result would not be allowed to board planes to Turkey. He also said passengers flying in from Britain, South Africa and Denmark would be subject to quarantine upon arrival, in addition to a negative test result at the time of departure.
In Australia, a further 39,000 tests on Christmas Day found just nine infections, six of which were household contacts of people already diagnosed in the cluster on the city’s northern beaches, and had already been isolating.
Thailand confirmed 110 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, of which 64 were local infections, connected to an outbreak in the south-west province of Samut Sakhon, the country’s worst Covid outbreak yet.
Of the new infections, 30 were among migrant workers and 16 were imported cases, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the country’s Covid task force.