South Korea has reported more than 500 new coronavirus cases for a second consecutive day.
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The level of infections hasn't been seen in the East Asian nation in nearly nine months, as a third wave spreads and authorities scrambled to provide hospital beds.
The daily tally of 569 comes a day after numbers hit their highest level since March 6, when South Korea was reeling from the first major COVID-19 epidemic outside China.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun warned on Friday daily infections could swell to 1000 and bring a greater crisis including bed shortages if social distancing measures and other restrictions fail to stop the contagion.
"The situation is extremely serious and acute, as all of the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces and especially all the 25 districts in Seoul are reporting new cases," Chung said.
The government reimposed strict social distancing rules on the capital Seoul and surrounding regions this week - restricting dining out, religious services and nightly entertainment.
The move came only a month after similar curbs were eased as a second wave of infections ebbed.
While South Korea's early outbreaks emerged from a specific religious group or region, the latest sprang from a multitude of clusters in and around the capital Seoul and is now spreading across the country, making it harder to trace and contain.
Of the latest cases, 525 were domestically transmitted and more than 64 per cent of those were from the Seoul metropolitan area, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
The portion of new cases reported in the greater Seoul area has fallen steadily from about 85 per cent early this month as the outbreak spread to other provinces such as South Gyeongsang and Gangwon.
All 17 metropolitan cities and provinces reported new cases on Thursday for the first time in months.
Chung urged authorities to secure more hospital beds to prevent shortages.
The health ministry said there were sufficient beds available for now but there could be shortfalls in two to three weeks if cases continued to spike.
The earlier waves quickly depleted hospital facilities, with the number of remaining beds for critical cases in the greater Seoul area, a metropolis of 26 million people, once plunging to near single digits.
South Korea has reported total infections of 32,887, with 516 deaths.
Australian Associated Press