Three venues of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) -- Seoul, Gwacheon and Deoksugung -- will temporarily close, starting Wednesday, as the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic began to escalate again in the metropolitan area.

“We have decided to close for now and will gauge the timing to reopen again,” Tiffany Yun, deputy director of communication and media team at MMCA, told The Korea Herald.

MMCA’s Cheongju venue in North Chungcheong Province, however, will remain open through a reservation system, limiting the number of daily visitors. The museum takes online reservations on its website (www.mmca.go.kr) in advance. 

The decision came after the government had imposed stringent health measures to prevent further spread of COVID-10 as the virus in Seoul metropolitan area started to spike at a fast rate. The social distancing plan for the capital area was raised to Level 2 on Saturday.

As of Tuesday, Korea counted 246 more cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 15,761, according to the national disease control agency’s database. 

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)