The number of Covid-19 cases in South Korea has surged by 10-fold in the past three days.
Just today (Feb. 22), over 200 new confirmed cases have been reported.
Over half of Covid-19 cases in South Korea came from Daegu
The sudden spike came after a suspected "super spreader", a 61-year-old woman, was confirmed on Feb. 18 in the southeastern city of Daegu.
The 61-year-old attended church services despite feeling unwell. According to reports, she assumed that she was just having the common flu.
Since then, 231 confirmed cases in South Korea were traced back to the church cluster based in Daegu.
That makes up over half of the total confirmed cases in South Korea.
Afraid of becoming a "second Wuhan"
In an interview with AFP, a resident in Daegu said that he's afraid that the city will become a "second Wuhan" given the uptick in Covid-19 cases.
Daegu residents have been advised by the health authorities to stay home and wear a mask indoors.
The city was classified as a "special care zone" on Friday (Feb. 21) and resources have been diverted to Daegu to ease the shortage of sickbeds and medical equipment, according to Yonhap.
Panic buying
As fear gripped the residents in Daegu, many have rushed into various supermarkets to grab household essentials.
Screenshot via KimYerin_Vlogs/YouTube.
The panic buying has just begun so some sections of the supermarkets are still pretty well-stocked.
However, many shelves at the supermarkets have already been wiped out and long queues were spotted in Daegu as seen from social media posts:
Top photo collage via @anjfcjqhsh/Twitter and @irinamow/Twitter