Anchor: South Korean health authorities are on alert after a cluster of COVID-19 infections has emerged in the Seoul metropolitan area. Health authorities on Friday reported 13 new cases of COVID-19 since midnight. Of those, 12 had visited clubs in Seoul’s Itaewon district that a confirmed case from the previous day had visited during South Korea’s recent extended holiday. Officials estimate the contact list of the clubs to be at least one-thousand-500, sparking concern that more cases will emerge.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more. 

Report: The Seoul Metropolitan Government revealed in a briefing Friday that so far 114 people who visited three clubs in Itaewon voluntarily took part in testing for COVID-19. 

The announcement came a day after a resident of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, who had visited the clubs in question last Saturday, tested positive for the virus. He was the 66th confirmed case in Yongin.

Among those who came forward, 12 tested positive and 97 tested negative as of Friday afternoon. Results are pending for five people.

Roughly one-thousand-500 people are estimated to have visited the clubs last weekend.  

Given the strong possibility that the number of infected could rise, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said efforts were underway to confirm the list of people who visited the clubs.

The city of Yongin, meanwhile, said a man in his 30s who works in the same office as the original patient in the cluster also tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday, bringing the total number of connected cases to 15.

Following the test results, Seongnam City promptly disinfected the floor of the building in its Bundang District that houses the IT company where the two men work. The city also ordered the remaining 43 employees of the company to go into self-quarantine. They are also being tested for COVID-19.

The outbreak has led to calls within South Korea’s medical community for authorities to consider special quarantine measures for clubs and other entertainment establishments even as the country loosens social distancing elsewhere.

[Sound bite: Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]
"The current cases of infections at entertainment establishments are a wake-up call, alerting us about loose quarantine practices. Mass infections can occur at places other than entertainment establishments. " 

On Friday afternoon, the government issued an executive order requesting that entertainment establishments such as clubs and bars remain closed for a month.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.