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Coronavirus: thousands wait for hospital beds in South Korea as cases hit 5,621, death toll climbs to 32
- South Korea also announced a stimulus package of US$9.8 billion to cushion the impact of the largest outbreak of coronavirus outside China
- More than 4,000 cases have now been confirmed in the southern city of Daegu, where the main cluster formed around a controversial Christian sect
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South Korea reported 435 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as many sick people waited for hospital beds in Daegu, the city at the centre of the worst outbreak outside China.
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The new cases bring South Korea’s total to 5,621, with at least 32 deaths, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
Most cases were in and around Daegu, the country’s fourth-largest city, where the flu-like virus has spread rapidly through members of a secretive Christian group.
“We need special measures in times of emergency,” South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a cabinet meeting, referring to extra medical resources for hotspots and economic measures including a US$9.8 billion stimulus.
“In order to overcome Covid-19 as quickly as possible and minimise the impact on the economy, it is necessary to proactively inject all available resources.”
Covid-19 is the illness caused by the new coronavirus which emerged from China late last year to spread around the world.
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Hospitals in South Korea’s hardest hit areas were scrambling to accommodate the surge in new patients.
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