South Korea hopes for vigilance during holiday

South Korea officials have issued public pleas for vigilance to maintain hard-won gains against the coronavirus as the nation enters its longest holiday since infections surged in February.

South Korea's Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip on Wednesday said 180,000 people are expected to visit the resort island of Jeju during a six-day break from Thursday to Tuesday, despite the island government pleading travellers not to come.

Hotels and other accommodation facilities are nearly fully booked in some seaside towns in Gangwon province, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 2018.

Kim urged travelers to wear masks, not to share food and stay at home if they have fever or respiratory symptoms.

Gangwon has increased the number of thermal cameras at train stations, bus terminals and highway rest areas. Jeju plans to expand temperature checks at its airport and conduct virus tests on travelers with even mild fevers above 37.3 degrees Celsius.

"(I) hope that this 'golden holiday' could really be remembered as golden, Kim said during a virus briefing. We must not let a moment of carelessness trigger mass transmissions that would make the efforts we invested so far vanish like bubbles of water.