More than 500 schools in South Korea closed again on Friday, May 29 after briefly reopening.

The closures were in a bid to stamp out a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in the capital, Seoul.

Some of the schools that closed again on Friday had only reopened in the past few days.

Students will switch to remote learning.

Some 26 million people, about half of the country's population, reside in the Seoul metropolitan area.

High schools in the Seoul metropolitan area can only have two-thirds of their student population at a time until June 14.

Kindergartens, elementary, middle, and special education schools can only admit one-third of their students at a time.

As of Thursday, a total of 838 schools across the country had postponed the reopening of the schools and continued with online classes.

Other events postponed

Parks, art galleries, museums and theaters operated by the government in the Seoul metropolitan area have also been closed to the public for the next two weeks.

Government-hosted events will be cancelled or postponed as well, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said on Thursday.

The authorities have recommended that private academies and internet cafes there close until June 14.

Park also asked people living in the Seoul metropolitan area to refrain from going outside or holding events for the next two weeks.

New cluster

The latest coronavirus outbreak includes a cluster in a logistics center in Bucheon.

Almost 100 cases had been linked to the logistics center cluster as of Friday.

So far, 3,836 people out of 4,351 workers and visitors at the center had been tested.

All those working at the logistics center since May 12 should self-quarantine and get tested for coronavirus.

And any student or teacher living in a household with a worker at the center should stay home.

Over three days before the weekend, there were 177 new Covid-19 cases reported.

A total of 58 new coronavirus cases were reported on Friday, all in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area.

That followed the country's biggest jump in coronavirus cases in more than 50 days on Thursday, when it was reported 79 more people had become infected.

Difficult even for South Korea

South Korea has been held up as a model of how to limit the spread of the coronavirus without a widespread lockdown.

Its rigorous testing, contact tracing and quarantine programme have been hailed as top notch.

South Korea's struggle to prevent new Covid-19 outbreaks despite stringent measures, demonstrates the struggle other nations will face when they ease lockdown measures as well.

As of early Friday, 11,402 total cases had been reported in South Korea. There have been 269 deaths, and 770 patients are currently under isolation.