South Korea had seemed to be winning the fight against the Coronavirus: Quickly ramping up its testing, contact-tracing and quarantine efforts paid off when it weathered an early outbreak without the economic pain of a lockdown. But a deadly resurgence has reached new heights during Christmas week.

The 1,241 infections on Christmas Day were the largest daily increase. Another 1,132 cases were reported on Saturday, bringing the caseload to 55,902. Over 15,000 were added in the last 15 days alone.