South Korea conducts a mass testing for 52 prisons in the country due to a massive prison outbreak, Country also decided to extend flight suspensions from Britain for two weeks as part of efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections on Wednesday. More than half of the total 2,292 inmates and personnel in a prison in southeastern Seoul tested positive for Covid 19 after a first cluster infection was reported within the prison last month, Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official, told at a press briefing.
The justice ministry is separating the infected inmates by transferring them to a designated hospital, said Yoon. Health Authorities will complete mass testing on remaining 70,000 prison inmates and staff nationwide, as the number of confirmed cases linked to prisons throughout the country increased to 1,191. Government Authorities decided on Wednesday to extend flight suspensions from Britain until January 21, reports the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, after at least 12 cases of a new strain of the coronavirus were found.
The country had extended a ban on direct flights from Britain until January 7, and mandated the passengers arriving from UK or South Africa to undergo testing before departure. The country reported 840 new cases as of midnight on Tuesday, a slight increase from 715 a day before, bringing the national tally to 65,818 infections with 1,027 deaths. The number of coronavirus fatalities in South Korea passed 1,000 on Tuesday.
South Korea reports 1,020 more COVID-19 cases