Governments across Asia are re-implementing stricter movement control orders amid significant increases in daily new COVID-19 cases over the past few days.
Seoul to Reintroduce Social Distancing
Starting Sunday, the South Korean capital of Seoul will reintroduce strict social distancing measures, following 279 new confirmed coronavirus on Saturday.
The local government's new announcement came as the capital continues to record significant increases in daily cases. Furthermore, 267 of Saturday's new infections were locally transmitted.
The spike in local transmissions has raised concerns about whether reopening the economy and schools has driven the rise in cases with no travel history.
Church-Linked Infections Also on the Rise
Many of South Korea's new cases over the past three weeks have been linked to religious groups, raising alarms about the repeating the scenario earlier this year when a massive cluster was traced back to the Shincheonji church in Daegu.
As of Saturday afternoon, confirmed COVID-19 cases linked to Woori Jeil Church in Yongin have risen to 105, while cases with links to the Sarang Jeil Church increased to 134.
South Korea now has a total of 15,318 confirmed coronavirus cases and 305 deaths from the disease.
Japan Sees Holiday Spike
In Japan, the situation has shown no sign of a let-up as the country reported over 1,200 new confirmed COVID-19 infections on Saturday, marking the third day in a row that the country topped the 1,000-mark.
Tokyo remains the hardest-hit in all of Japan, logging 385 new infections, following Friday's climb of 389. The previous day's record marked the first time since August 9 that the Japanese capital logged over 300 cases in daily infections.
An official with the capital's government said the spike in daily cases may be due in part to the holiday season, wherein families travel and spend time in groups.
Japan Mulls Continued Limitation of Spectators in Events
Meanwhile, officials revealed that the government is planning to continue limiting the number of people who will be allowed to see concerts, sports events, and other similar gatherings.
The maximum limit is currently set at 5,000 and the Japanese government is in talks of retaining the said number as COVID-19 continues to sweep the country.
The news came amid increasing concerns about the sporadic cluster infections brought about by reopened businesses and the easing of strict social distancing measures across Japan.
As of Saturday, Japan has logged a total of 52,217 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,073 deaths.
India Inches Closer to 2.6 Million Infections
On Sunday, the Indian health ministry announced an additional 63,490 new confirmed coronavirus cases, as the country gets closer to the grim 2.6 million-mark in infections.
India has been recording over 60,000 daily cases over the past week, with many of the infections among poor communities. There were also 944 lives lost to the virus on Sunday.
Despite the continuous spike in daily cases, the country's COVID-19 mortality rate dipped below 2 percent, making it one of the world's hard-hit nations with a low mortality rate.
Compared to other hard-hit countries like Brazil and the United States, India also has an increasing recovery rate. Of its 2,589.682 confirmed coronavirus infections, 1,862,258 patients have since recovered.
