Virus surge makes S. Korean lockdown more likely

South Korea reported 441 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, its highest single-day total in months, making lockdown-like restrictions look inevitable as transmissions slip out of control. The country has reported triple-digit daily jumps on each of the past 14 days, prompting health experts to warn that hospitals could run out of capacity. Thursday's increase was the biggest since 483 cases were reported on March 7. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 315 of the new cases were from the Seoul area, home to half of the country’s 51 million people, where health workers have struggled to track infections linked to churches, restaurants, schools and workers.