국내 일상생활속 감염 지속... 금일 역대 2번째 하루 확진자 수<br /><br />Our starting point tonight:<br />South Korea is expanding the use of rapid tests and deploying hundreds of police officers and soldiers to help with contact tracing and planning to add up to a thousand beds as it deals with its worst surge of coronavirus cases since the early days of the pandemic.<br />Kim Do-yeon leads our coverage tonight. Experts say the third wave of COVID-19 in South Korea is expected to be the biggest and the longest the country endured so far.<br />This is due to clusters popping up from daily activities.<br />More than 200 cases were linked to a singing class in Seoul... while clusters outside of the capital include a guitar lesson and a soccer club.<br />On Friday, the country reported 689 new cases of COVID-19... of which 673 were local transmissions.<br />The capital region accounted for more than 75-percent of the cases.<br />Seoul reported more than 250 cases for four days in a row and Gyeonggi-do Province hit a record high with 225 cases.<br />The Prime Minister told the public that this is not just a problem for the capital as people have carried the virus throughout the nation.<br />That being said, the government is setting up about 150 temporary screening centers in and around Seoul.<br />It will also call up additional man-power.<br />""In addition, we will make full epidemiological efforts by deploying 800 military and police personnel, and training public service workers in the capital region. We will make a full effort by thinking if the capital falls, the whole virus prevention system will be broken."<br />Tracing has been getting tougher for health authorities as the percentage of untraceable cases has passed 20 percent.<br />And the fast rise in cases is filling up hospitals and treatment centers.<br />With 65 percent of available beds for mild symptoms occupied, government is looking to make more beds available.<br />"We are planning to add 1,000 additional beds from centrally-run public hospitals including ones in capital region such as the National Medical Center and National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital."<br />There are currently 170 critical care beds, and the government aims to increase this to 331 beds by the end of the year.<br />Kim Do-yeon, Arirang News.<br />
