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10:10 GMT
TOKYO, Feb 26 (KUNA) -- South Korea reported 284 news cases on Wednesday for the sharpest daily surge, bringing the total to 1,261, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Around 80 percent of the confirmed cases currently trace to two clusters of infections -- one at a branch of a minor religious sect in Daegu, 300 km southeast of the capital, and one at a hospital in the neighboring county of Cheongdo.
On Wednesday, health authorities started testing about 210,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus at the center of the rapid infections in the country.
Of the total confirmed cases in South Korea, the number of patients in Seoul reached 49, with fears rising that infections could worsen in the capital after a church pastor was confirmed as a patient.
The infected pastor serves at Myungsung Church, one of city's megachurches with 80,000 followers, and took part in several church events. In another worrisome development, the total number of virus patients in Busan -- South Korea's second-largest city, with 3.5 million people -- rose to 58, with 23 patients linked to a Christian church.
South Korea confirmed its first new coronavirus case in a Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, on Jan. 20. So far, 12 people have died in South Korea from the new virus that emerged in China. (Pick up previous)
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