NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

In a COVID-19 meeting Friday, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told officials to take stronger measures such as imposing no-assembly orders on facilities that continue to report cluster infections.
A QR code-based electronic visitor log system has been mandatorily introduced for establishments at high risk of spreading the coronavirus, such as clubs and singing rooms. This system will also be compatible with KakaoTalk messenger as early as this month. The Health Ministry and the messaging app have finalized talks to this effect.
For the first time in Korea, a Levallois stone tool from the Middle Paleolithic Era has been found at a prehistoric relic site near Imjingang River in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggido Province. The Levallois technique refers to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed in Europe and Africa in the Palaeolithic period.
K-pop boy band BTS has become the first foreign artist in 36 years to top Japan's Oricon album sales chart for the first half of the year. Its management agency Big Hit Entertainment said the band's fourth regular album "Map of the Soul: 7" released in February has sold 429,000 copies in Japan. It's the first time since Michael Jackson in 1984 for a foreign artist to claim the number one spot on the Oricon albums chart for the year's first half.