South Korea students take exams amid viral spike

Hundreds of thousands of masked students in South Korea, including 35 confirmed COVID-19 patients, are taking the highly competitive university entrance exam despite a viral resurgence that forced authorities to toughen social distancing rules.

The Education Ministry says about 500,000 students began taking the one-day test at about 1,380 test sites across the nation on Thursday.

It says the test sites include hospitals and other medical facilities where the 35 virus patients and hundreds of others have been placed under self-quarantine take the exam.

The Education Ministry says authorities would ban military exercises and airplane departures and landings during English-language listening parts of Thursday's test.

It says government offices and many private companies have asked their employees to come in late to clear roads for test-takers.

This year's test had been originally scheduled to happen on November 19 but was delayed due to the virus outbreak.

Many experts say on-and-off online classes introduced due to the pandemic have widened the country's educational achievement gap between wealthy and poor students.

South Korea on Thursday reported 540 new virus cases, marking the second straight day for its daily tally to be above 500.

South Korea last week re-imposed stringent restrictions in the greater Seoul area and other places to try to suppress a spike in new infections.

(Image credit: AP)