Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
South Korea has reported 280 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, raising the total number of infections to 17,945.
The daily caseload stayed below 300 for two straight days while growing in triple digits for 12 straight days, according to a media report.
Of the new cases, 134 were Seoul residents and 63 were from Gyeonggi,
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Sixteen were imported, lifting the combined figure to 2,750. One more death was confirmed, raising the death toll at 310.
A total of 67 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 14,286.
The country has been held up as a global model in how to curb the virus and rushed to contain new infections as life returned to normal.
Some high schools were forced to turn back pupils shortly after resuming classes early in June over concerns of new virus cases in their neighbourhood.
South Korea endured one of the worst early outbreaks of the disease outside mainland China, and while it never imposed a compulsory lockdown, strict social distancing had been widely observed since March.
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