South Korea’s capital, Seoul, on Friday announced unprecedented restrictions shuttering most establishments and shops at 9 p.m. and cutting back public transportation operations by 30% in the evenings, as daily coronavirus cases hit a nine-month high.

Calling the surge in daily cases “a dire crisis,” health authorities urged South Koreans to cancel Christmas and New Year parties, while President Moon Jae-in tapped an experienced pandemic fighter as his next health minister.

Health authorities reported 629 new coronavirus infections, the highest in South Korea since a first wave peaked in February and early March, with 291 of the 600 community infections reported in Seoul.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said the situation was critical and the government would decide on Sunday whether to upgrade restrictions to include the closure of karaoke bars and limits on religious gatherings to just 20 people.

Despite tougher restrictions imposed 10 days ago, the rise in cases remained “uncontainable,” he told a government meeting.

Acting Seoul mayor Seo Jeong-hyup said shops, theatres, libraries and establishments that had not been under existing restrictions after 9 p.m. will be asked to shut down, as well as all city-run facilities regardless of hours.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said 463 or more than three quarters of the latest locally transmitted cases were from Seoul and nearby areas. South Korea has now reported a total of 36,332 infections, with 536 deaths.

That was the largest infection in the Seoul area since the start of the outbreak, health ministry official Yoon Tae-ho told a briefing.

Health authorities called on people to cancel all year-end gatherings and parties during a month-long “special virus prevention period” from Dec. 7 to Jan. 3.

“Please hold online celebrations especially for Christmas, religious events and New Year sunrise festivals if possible, and we urge you to not host any parties or events at hotels,” Yoon said.

STUDENTS ON THE MOVE

Authorities are concerned that university entrance exams – which nearly half a million students sat on Thursday – and admissions tests over the next two weeks could prove to be another source of contagion.

At least 207,000 students will move around the country for university admissions tests this weekend and 192,000 the next, Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae told a briefing.

“It is no exaggeration to say that the safety of South Korea depends on the test-takers,” Yoo said.

Under current Phase 2 restrictions, karaoke bars and internet cafes can operate with limited seating and need to close at 9 p.m. There are nearly 30,000 karaoke bars and over 9,500 internet cafes and game rooms nationwide.

Under the next level of restrictions currently under consideration, karaoke bars would close, social gatherings would be limited to 50 people, fans would be barred from attending sport events, and religious gatherings would be capped at 20 people.

Tighter restrictions would be a blow to Asia’s fourth-largest economy, which reported a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 4.2% in October, the highest since July.

“Small business owners and self-employed businesses are the most affected by social-distancing measures. We are very sorry for that,” health ministry official Yoon said.More income assistance for small businesses is being considered, he added.

The top U.S. intelligence official stepped up the Trump administration’s harsh attacks on Beijing, labeling China the biggest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since World War Two and saying it was bent on global domination.

“The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said in an opinion article on the Wall Street Journal website.

Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman appointed by Trump to the top U.S. spy job last spring, said China posed “the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War Two.”

He said he had shifted resources within the $85 billion annual federal budget allocated to intelligence to increase the focus on China.

Ratcliffe said China’s economic espionage approach was threefold: “Rob, Replicate and Replace.”

He said the strategy was for Chinese entities to steal American companies’ intellectual property, copy it and then supplant U.S. companies in the global market place.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy rejected Ratcliffe’s comments as “fact-distorting” and hypocritical and said they showed “the entrenched Cold-War mindset and ideological prejudices of some people on the U.S. side”.

Beijing has frequently called on U.S. leaders to dial back their rhetoric on China, which it blames on fear of China’s growing role in the world.

Ratcliffe’s essay was the latest broadside against China from President Donald Trump’s administration as it seeks to cement the outgoing president’s tough-on-China legacy following his Nov. 3 election defeat.

Trump’s approach has taken relations between the world’s two largest economies to their lowest point in decades and analysts say it could limit the incoming Biden administration’s room for maneuver in dealing with Beijing.

Ratcliffe alluded to reports collected by U.S. intelligence agencies that Chinese representatives have sought to interfere in U.S. domestic politics.

He also charged that China had stolen U.S. defense technology to fuel President Xi Jinping’s aggressive military modernization plans.

“The election is over. Now let’s all be honest about China,” Ratcliffe said.

Among other issues, Washington and Beijing have clashed over China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, its tightening grip on Hong Kong, its disputed claims in the South China Sea, trade and accusations of human rights crimes in Xinjiang.

Ratcliffe, who served only briefly on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee before Trump appointed him to his role, has been accused by Democrats and current and former intelligence officials of politicizing intelligence.

In his essay, Ratcliffe said Chinese authorities had “conducted human testing” on members of the Chinese army “in hopes of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities.” He did not elaborate.

U.S.-based think tanks have reported that China is giving increasing importance to biotechnology in its military strategy but they have not released detailed reports about the kind of testing alleged by Ratcliffe.

On Thursday, the Trump administration restricted travel to the United States by members of China’s ruling Communist Party and their families.

On Wednesday, it banned cotton imports from a quasi-military organization in Xinjiang it says uses forced labor of detained Muslims, while the House passed a law to kick Chinese firms off U.S. stock exchanges if they do not comply with auditing rules.

China accused U.S. politicians of fabricating news of detained Muslims being forced into labor in Xinjiang.

In an emailed statement, the embassy spokesperson said “no one deserves the title of Empire of Hacking and Spying better than the U.S.” and charged that both the U.S. government and U.S. firms had long carried out “large-scale, organized and indiscriminate cyber theft, surveillance and attack.”

Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said Ratcliffe’s comments appeared aimed at locking in a tough approach before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20.

“It does appear to part of a broader effort to tie Biden’s hands and limit his room to maneuver on China policy,” she said.

“In prior administrations, the norm has been to avoid taking such actions during a presidential transition, but the Trump administration has long set a pattern of bucking the norm.”