The virus continues to spread in South Korea with no hints of slowing down yet:

With the number of confirmed coronavirus cases nearing 1,000 on Tuesday, South Korea vowed to maximize its containment measures in the southeastern city of Daegu and neighboring North Gyeongsang Province, where some 800 cases have been reported so far. 

The 144 additional cases brought the nation’s total infections to 977, according to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). It marked a more than 30-fold surge since Feb. 18, when the number stood at 31. 

Two clusters of infections — at a branch of a religious sect in Daegu and a hospital in the neighboring county of Cheongdo — have continued to expand, accounting for about 70 percent of the total cases in the country.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If there wasn’t enough problems for Samsung dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, now Iran is making threats against the smartphone maker:

An Iranian official on Tuesday warned Samsung Electronics that it is planning to restrict the use of the tech giant’s mobile phones in the country, accusing the company of bowing to pressure from the United States.

The official’s statement is a response to Samsung’s decision to limit app purchases for Iranian users of its Galaxy Store, for which it cited issues with converting Iranian currency. The policy is set to take effect beginning in late February.

But Iranian news outlets have reported the move as a response to U.S. sanctions against the country and have suggested the restriction will widen to free apps as well next month. Samsung is the dominant smartphone producer in Iran, with more than 50 percent market share.  

Mohammad Jafar Na’nakar, a government official who heads the legal department at Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, delivered the warning to Samsung during an interview Tuesday with Press TV, an Iranian state-run news outlet.

“The list of measures against Samsung is ready,” Na’nakar said.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Israel is taking some very stringent measures against Korean visitors to stop the spread of the coronavirus because of recent pilgrims from Korea that brought the virus to the country:

On Sunday, the Israeli government officially issued an entry ban on foreign citizens coming from Korea and Japan starting Monday. 

Israel has already banned visitors coming from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Thailand.

A plane from Korea that landed in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport Saturday evening, carrying some 200 non-Israelis, was refused entry and forced to return to Korea with nearly all its original passengers just two hours later.

Several media outlets in Korea, citing the Israeli Travel Ministry’s office in Seoul, reported Sunday that Israel would also confine all 1,600 or so Koreans currently on Israeli soil to their current lodgings for 14 days, the amount of time the virus is believed to incubate in a human body. 

Korea’s Foreign Ministry denied the allegation, saying it confirmed with the Israeli government that no such measure would be enforced. The ministry added that it lodged a complaint with the Israeli government about the latter’s refusal to admit the passengers of Saturday’s flight from Korea. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The coronavirus spread continues to get worse, particularly in Daegu:

South Korea reported another record daily spike in the number of new coronavirus cases on Monday, and two more deaths from COVID-19, with most new cases centered in the southeastern city of Daegu, where health authorities are shifting the focus of the anti-virus fight to containing its spread.

The 231 additional cases of the new coronavirus brought the total number of infections in South Korea to 833. 

The two latest victims of the potentially fatal illness are tied to Daenam Hospital in Cheongdo, near Daegu. Six out of the eight deaths here are linked to the hospital where over 110 people were confirmed to have been infected.

Daegu, where 2.5 million people have been asked to stay indoors, saw its confirmed cases jump by 196 to 483 on Monday, despite efforts to stem the spread of the virus, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the number of infected and the 8 deaths show just under a 1% fatality rate with this virus so far.

Via the Stars & Stripes comes word that a U.S. military dependent has contracted the coronavirus:

A U.S. military dependent who visited base facilities on a southeastern base tested positive for the new coronavirus in South Korea, officials said Monday, as they raised the risk level for the military community to high.

South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “informed us today a [U.S. Forces Korea] dependent in Daegu tested positive for COVID-19, making this the first time a USFK individual has tested positive,” a USFK statement said.

“USFK has raised the risk level to ‘high’ for USFK peninsula-wide as a prudent measure to protect the force,” it added.

No active-duty service members have tested positive for the coronavirus that has rapidly spread in the country over the past week, Camp Humphreys garrison commander Col. Michael Tremblay said separately at a town hall-style meeting Monday.

He said the woman who tested positive was a 61-year-old widowed dependent.

USFK said the woman had visited the post exchange on Feb. 12 and 15 at Camp Walker in the southeastern city of Daegu, which has been the epicenter of a recent outbreak.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting that the Korean government is delaying the school term across the country, but are still allowing in 70,000 Chinese college students:

South Korea said Sunday it will postpone the new school year, set to start next month, as part of efforts to tackle the new coronavirus after the number of patients spiked to more than 600.

“To prevent the spread of infection, and for the safety of students and school faculty, the education ministry will postpone the first day of the 2020 school year at kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools across the country by a week,” Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said in a government press briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The news is getting worse out of South Korea in regards to the spread of the coronavirus:

Four more fatalities from the new coronavirus were reported in Korea over the weekend, bringing the total death toll to six as infections skyrocketed to 602.

The Korean government elevated its official alert level for the coronavirus on Sunday to “red,” the highest in its four-tier system, in a meeting presided over by President Moon Jae-in and pledged to mobilize all resources to subdue the outbreak.

Infections remain heavily concentrated in a single city, Daegu, and the surrounding province of North Gyeongsang, with 495, or 82.2 percent of the total. Four of the six deaths are linked to Daenam Hospital in North Gyeongsang’s Cheongdo County, where nearly 110 other people including medical staff have contracted the disease.

A 40-year-old man in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, who died Friday posthumously tested positive for the coronavirus Saturday, officials from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.

A 57-year-old man who was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of Daenam Hospital before being recently transferred to Dongguk University Gyeongju Hospital in Gyeongju died Sunday morning. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.