SKorea sees record virus jump as thousands take college exam

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea reported its biggest regular leap successful coronavirus infections since the commencement of the pandemic arsenic hundreds of thousands of masked students flocked to schools connected Thursday for the country’s highly competitory assemblage entranceway exam amid increasing concerns astir the delta-driven spread.

About 509,000 students were taking the one-day exam astatine 1,395 sites crossed the nation, including hospitals and shelters.

The yearly exam, called “Suneung,” oregon the College Scholastic Ability Test, is important successful the education-obsessed country, wherever careers, societal standings and adjacent matrimony prospects greatly beryllium connected which assemblage a idiosyncratic attends.

Students were required to person their temperatures taken earlier entering classrooms, and those with fevers were sent to abstracted investigating areas. The Education Ministry said that 68 infected students and 105 others successful self-quarantine took the hours-long trial successful isolation.

The 3,292 caller cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency connected Thursday marked the 2nd consecutive time of implicit 3,000 cases. The bureau said 29 patients died successful the past 24 hours, bringing the decease toll to 3,187, portion 506 others were successful superior oregon captious condition.

To trim noise, proscription authorities were readying to temporarily halt landings and departures of planes astatine airports during the English-listening portion of the test. Government offices and backstage companies had their employees travel successful late, and the country’s banal marketplace delayed its opening by an hr to wide roads for test-takers.

“(Students) weren’t fixed due classes (because of COVID-19) and I often saw my kid worrying overmuch and struggling,” said Seo Kwang-sun, a parent of a test-taker successful Seoul.

While schools person been alternating betwixt on-and-offline classes, the Education Ministry had planned a afloat instrumentality to classrooms starting adjacent week to assistance trim acquisition gaps and align with the government’s microorganism strategies.

Officials eased societal distancing rules starting this period successful what they described arsenic the archetypal measurement toward restoring immoderate pre-pandemic normalcy. In allowing larger societal gatherings and longer indoor eating hours astatine restaurants, officials cited concerns astir the pandemic’s interaction connected the system and expressed anticipation that improving vaccination rates would support hospitalizations and deaths down adjacent if the microorganism continues to spread.

But determination has been a emergence successful superior cases and fatalities among older radical who rejected vaccines oregon whose immunities waned aft being injected aboriginal successful the wide immunization run that started successful precocious February, prompting questions astir whether the determination to loosen microorganism restrictions was premature.

So far, officials person issued nary plans to re-impose stricter societal distancing measures oregon postpone a afloat reopening of schools.