South Korea to extend COVID-19 curbs into Lunar New Year holidays

FILE PHOTO: Workers wearing traditional attire walk on a cold winter day, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic during the daily re-enactment of the changing of the Royal Guards at Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul,?South Korea, January 28, 2021. REUTERS/Heo Ran

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks until the end of the Lunar New Year holidays as new COVID-19 infection clusters emerge in the country, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said on Sunday.

The announcement dashed earlier expectations that the government would ease the rules from the current highest levels, which include a restaurant curfew and a ban on gatherings of more than four people and have been in place since early December.