Dozens of new virus cases discovered overnight

South Korea added 36 new coronavirus cases overnight, with the majority found in the southeast region, Koreas Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

Thirty-five of the 36 patients were found in Daegu and the Northern Gyeongsang province, the centre said.

Twenty-eight of those 35 new patients went to church services attended by a previously confirmed virus patient, according to Jeong Eun-kyung, director of the disease control and prevention centre.

That patient is a South Korean woman in her early 60s who has no recent record of overseas travel, according to centre officials.

On Wednesday, the city confirmed 13 cases and 11 of them either went to the same church with the woman patient or contacted her at a hospital, according to the disease control centre.

The explosion of infections in Daegu and the neighbouring southeast region, as well as some new cases in the Seoul metropolitan area where the sources of infections were unclear, have raised concern that health authorities are losing track of the virus as it spreads more broadly in the country.