Though South Korea is having it highest daily infection numbers yet, it is important to keep perspective. For a country of 51 million people these numbers are basically the equivalent of a large American city:

South Korea reported more than 1,100 daily new coronavirus cases on Saturday, adding pressure on authorities to tighten social distancing rules to flatten the curve of infections.

The country reported 1,132 more COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, including 1,104 local infections, putting the total caseload at 55,902, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). 

The tally is slightly lower than Friday’s new record high of 1,241. The death toll rose by 20 to 793, with the fatality rate at 1.42 percent.

Yonhap

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It looks like Santa brought the coronavirus vaccine for some U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan:

U.S. Forces Korea will start administering the Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus to frontline health care workers and first responders “over the next few days,” the USFK commander, Gen. Robert Abrams, announced Tuesday.

In a message on the USFK website, Abrams said the command would receive “additional shipments of the vaccine to inoculate all USFK-affiliated community members as production and distribution increases.”

He did not specify a timeline for wider distribution of the vaccine. “I ask that our community remains patient and flexible as the additional shipments arrive,” Abrams wrote. (…….)

In Japan, the same vaccine is expected to arrive, destined for six U.S. bases with medical treatment facilities, “within the next 24-48 hours,” Chief Master Sgt. Rick Winegardner Jr., senior enlisted leader of U.S. Forces Japan, said on American Forces Network Radio on Wednesday.

Stars & Stripes

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It is amazing that Army leadership did not foresee how controversial a fitness test that puts females at a great disadvantage would be with Congress:

The defense bill halts the implementation of the Army Combat Fitness Test until a study is complete to assess the test’s impact on recruitment and retention. The study, which has to be conducted by an entity independent of the Pentagon, also has to investigate whether troops in different environments where outdoor activity is hindered are at a disadvantage.

The test has already been on hold. Army leaders have said units can conduct the test now, but will not count on a soldier’s record until 2022. This is to give troops more time to train for the test and as a reaction to the pandemic, which has restricted gym access across the country.

The ACFT replaces the decades-old fitness test with more events aimed to gauge a soldier’s physical fitness for combat. This includes CrossFit-style exercise events, hand release pushups, and leg tucks. The test retains the timed two-mile run.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The mobile test centers set up around Seoul to help conduct random coronavirus testing is showing how many people have the virus without knowing it:

Temporary coronavirus testing centers now in operation throughout the greater Seoul area have contributed greatly to detecting hidden infections, officials said Thursday, announcing as many as 150 cases were confirmed through their testing the previous day alone.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters, 58,091 people were tested by the makeshift screening facilities Wednesday and 150 of them were diagnosed with COVID-19.

Patients detected this way accounted for 15.7 percent of all new daily COVID-19 cases reported by Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi Province and Incheon on the day, the agency noted.

As a result, the cumulative number of coronavirus cases detected by about 150 temporary testing centers, which began operations on Dec. 14 for three weeks, rose to 904, it said.

Earlier this week, the Seoul city government said 1 in 4 new daily COVID-19 cases in the capital were confirmed through the street testing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.