Hello and welcome to today’s coverage of the coronavirus. Im Kate Lyons and I’ll kick things off.
Today we kick off some troubling news from Asia, where several countries are looking at fears of a fourth wave of the virus.
South Korea will re-ban nightclubs, karaoke bars and other entertainment venues, authorities said Friday, after the number of new coronavirus cases has increased.
“Signs of a fourth wave of epidemics that we had been so striving to face are closing in and getting stronger,” Chung told a daily meeting about the pandemic.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announced the curbs, which will take effect for three weeks on Monday, after the daily number of new cases climbed to a three-month high in recent days.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 671 new cases Thursday, a day after the daily count hit its highest level since early January, with clusters developing from churches, bars and gyms, mostly in the greater Seoul region.
meanwhile in Japan, Tokyo has asked the Japanese central government for permission to take emergency measures to stem a wave of a fast-spreading and more contagious variant of the coronavirus just over three months before the start of the Olympics.
Tokyo follows Osaka in western Japan, which declared a medical emergency after hospitals were inundated with new cases.
Tokyo, which only came out of a state of emergency on March 21, reported 545 cases on Thursday. Koike said she is alarmed by the rapid spread of the new variants, especially one that was initially discovered in Britain.
“It would be a matter of time before Tokyo faces a situation similar to Osaka,” said Koike.