Coronavirus cases in S Korea, China dip but officials urge vigilance
SEOUL/BEIJING: South Korea, which has one of the world's largest coronavirus totals outside China, yesterday reported its smallest daily rise in cases for two weeks.
A total of 248 cases were confirmed on Sunday, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
Each morning, the South announces how many cases were diagnosed the previous day, and gives an update every afternoon with the current day's figures.
It was 96 yesterday, taking the total to 7,478.
The 248 figure for Sunday was the third consecutive daily fall and the lowest for any single day since late last month.
"The slowing trend should continue," President Moon Jae-in told aides, his office said in a statement, but warned: "We should not be complacent at all."
South Korea was the first country to report significant coronavirus numbers outside China, where the disease first emerged.
But in recent days the focus of global concern has moved towards Italy and Iran.
South Korea has had 51 deaths, according to the KCDC.
WARNING
China, outside Hubei province, reported no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases for the second day yesterday, as a top Communist Party official warned against reducing vigilance and of the risk the epidemic poses for social stability.
China had 40 new confirmed cases of infections as of Sunday, the National Health Commission said, down from 44 cases a day earlier, and the lowest number since the health authority started publishing nationwide data on Jan 20.
Of the new cases, 36 were in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, while the remaining four in Gansu province were imported from Iran.
Secretary general of the Communist Party's Politics and Law Commission Chen Yixin said: "We should not reduce the vigilance against the epidemic and the requirements of prevention and control."
The coronavirus emerged in Hubei late last year. The new cases on Sunday brought the total accumulated number of cases in China to 80,735.
The death toll from the outbreak in China reached 3,119 as of the end of Sunday, up 22 from the previous day.
Walt Disney's Shanghai Disneyland said it would partly resume operations in a first step of a phased reopening, though the main theme park would stay shut.
The resort has been closed since Jan 25. - AFP, REUTERS
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