Anchor: The daily COVID-19 increase in South Korea fell back down to the 700s, after surging over one-thousand for the first time since the start of the epidemic in January. With authorities considering further raising social distancing to Level Three, 150 temporary test sites opened across the capital region to accelerate testing and tracing.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said as of 12:00 a.m. Monday, 718 additional people tested positive for COVID-19, raising the country's cumulative total to 43-thousand-484.

The daily surge, which surpassed one-thousand the previous day for the first time since the country's first case on January 20, returned to triple digits. However, it should be noted that fewer tests are done over the weekend.

Out of the new cases, 682 were local infections, 473 of which were in the Seoul metropolitan area.

On top of a majority of clusters emerging from day-to-day interactions, group cases in connection to religious and medical facilities are being reported.

On Sunday, President Moon Jae-in ordered health authorities to make a decision on raising social distancing to Level Three, if deemed necessary, but stressed that raising distancing further should be a last resort.

Under Level Three, more than 500-thousand businesses and facilities will be forced to shut down, causing major economic and social damage.

In a bid to curb the virus' spread, mostly centered in the capital region, the government has set up 150 temporary test sites in Seoul and surrounding areas, to offer free tests, including to those not experiencing any symptoms.

Tests can be conducted anonymously and the sites will operate from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., seven days a week.

Amid a rapid decline of available facilities for those who are sick, the government has decided to secure 300 beds for critically-ill patients, two-thousand-700 for moderately-ill and seven-thousand for patients with mild or no symptoms.

Meanwhile, hundreds of military medical personnel and senior officials from the Army's Special Forces will be mobilized for the next two months to assist with COVID-19 tests and epidemiological studies in the capital region.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.