South Korea on Wednesday extended its suspension of direct flights from Britain for two more weeks, amid its stepped-up efforts to block the inflow of a more transmissible variant of the new coronavirus.

The suspension, which was set to end on Thursday, will remain in place until Feb. 11, according to the South Korean Embassy in Britain. Seoul introduced the ban on flights from Britain in December.

As of Monday, South Korea reported 27 cases of mutated virus strains, including 19 from Britain and five from South Africa.

South Korean authorities have been beefing up efforts to stop the inflow of COVID-19 variants from overseas, as they are thought to be more transmissible and could complicate efforts to curb the winter wave of the virus.

On Wednesday, the country added 559 more COVID-19 cases, including 516 locally transmitted infections, raising the total caseload to 76,429, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. (Yonhap)