Thousands of trainee doctors in South Korea have returned to work after ending a more than two-week strike as the country continued to post three-digit rises in new daily coronavirus infections.

According to Reuters, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 136 new cases, after the rate fell to a three-week low of 119 a day earlier. The total infections rose 21,432, with 341 deaths.

Efforts to blunt the latest epidemic has been complicated by the strike launched on Aug 21 by some 16,000 intern and resident doctors against the government’s medical reform proposals.

The intern and resident doctors are the backbone of healthcare services in emergency rooms and intensive care units, and hospitals increasingly grappled with delays and disruptions amid constant growths in Covid-19 patients.