The governor of a province that surrounds Seoul ordered the two-week shutdowns of all nightclubs, hostess bars and other similar entertainment facilities in his province to guard against a possible new surge in coronavirus cases.
Lee Jae-myung, the Gyeonggi province governor, announced the steps Sunday, a day after Seoul shut down more 2,100 nightclubs, hostess bars and discos in the capital city as dozens of fresh infections linked to clubgoers have been reported in recent days.
The province and Seoul form the Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of South Korea's 51 million people reside.
Earlier Sunday, South Korea reported 34 additional virus cases over the past 24 hours, the first time the country's daily jump has marked above 30 in about a month. Health authorities said that 24 of the 34 cases were those who had visited clubs in Seoul's Itaewon entertainment neighborhood in the past several days or people who came in contact with them later.
New cases linked to the Itaewon clubs raised worries that an outbreak in South Korea may surge again after showing a downward trend for weeks.
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