SEOUL – South Korea has reported 49 cases of COVID-19 as the virus continues to spread in the densely populated capital area where half of the country’s 51 million people live.Figures released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday brought the national caseload to 12,306 infections, including 280 deaths.
It said 26 of the new cases came from capital Seoul and the nearby port city of Incheon. Seventeen of the new cases were linked to international arrivals.South Korea has been reporting around 30 to 50 new cases per day since late May, inspiring second-guessing on whether officials were too quick to ease social distancing guidelines in April after the country’s first wave of infections waned.