South Korean firms take precautions to block Covid spread after holidays

Some of South Korea's corporate giants have asked staff to test themselves for COVID-19 before returning to work on Thursday after the Lunar New Year holidays, amid concerns the break could fuel the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant.

Kakao Corp, operator of South Korea's dominant chat app, went further and blocked employees from coming to the office for two weeks, as the country's daily infections hit record highs.

Many people in South Korea travelled during the holidays to see family, likely leading to an uptick in infections.

Kakao barred employees from entering the office until Feb.
 

18 without approval,