COVID-19 infections from daily activities increase as S. Korea reports second highest daily new cases

국내 일상생활속 감염 지속... 금일 역대 2번째 하루 확진자 수Our starting point tonight: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.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.This is due to clusters popping up from daily activities.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.On Friday, the country reported 689 new cases of COVID-19... of which 673 were local transmissions.The capital region accounted for more than 75-percent of the cases.Seoul reported more than 250 cases for four days in a row and Gyeonggi-do Province hit a record high with 225 cases.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.That being said, the government is setting up about 150 temporary screening centers in and around Seoul.It will also call up additional man-power.""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."Tracing has been getting tougher for health authorities as the percentage of untraceable cases has passed 20 percent.And the fast rise in cases is filling up hospitals and treatment centers.With 65 percent of available beds for mild symptoms occupied, government is looking to make more beds available."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."There are currently 170 critical care beds, and the government aims to increase this to 331 beds by the end of the year.Kim Do-yeon, Arirang News.