SEOUL — Several South Korea provinces and cities are continuing to mandate coronavirus testing for foreign workers, despite a request from the national government that prompted Seoul to end its mandate amid international outcry.

Last week the headquarters of the nation’s pandemic control effort asked local governments to end mandatory testing for foreigners, and improve testing policies to eliminate discrimination or rights violations. But only Seoul scrapped its controversial order.

The same day, Daegu, the fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.5 million, doubled down with a second order expanding the number of foreign workers that needed to be tested. No foreign workers among 2,553 in the first round tested positive, Daegu said in a statement.

The city, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in South Korea, also mandated that any new foreign hires be tested between Mar. 19 to 28.

South Jeolla province kept its order to test about 14,000 foreigners in March, but said it had revised its policies to include more Koreans, a provincial official told Reuters.

So far 24,700 foreign workers have been tested, with one testing positive, the official said.

Gyeonggi, the most populous province in South Korea, wrapped up two weeks of mandatory tests for hundreds of thousands of foreign workers on Monday.

North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces, and Incheon city, have also had mandatory testing policies. Representatives there did not respond to requests for comment.

North Gyeongsang said in a statement last week it had found 11 positive patients among 13,034 foreigners tested.

Health officials have said the measures were needed to blunt a spike in infections among foreign residents. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), foreigners accounted for more than 11% of all new cases across the country over the past week.

South Korea had at least 1.6 million registered foreign workers and 391,306 undocumented foreigners as of December, the justice ministry told Reuters.

South Korea’s human rights commission said on Monday that the remaining measures should be “immediately suspended” and called for Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun — who oversees anti-pandemic efforts — to work with local governments to implement policies that are not discriminatory.

Visiting one of Seoul’s testing centers on Monday, Mr. Chung said testing should cover foreigners and Koreans, and focus more on high-risk facilities.

The British Embassy, which was one of the most vocal critics of the policies, is discussing the issue with senior officials, spokesman Stephen Burns said.

“Any policy requiring the mandatory testing of foreigners, and only foreigners, is discriminatory in nature,” he said. — Reuters

BOULDER, Colo.  — A gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday, killing 10 people, including a police officer, before being arrested, marking the second deadly US mass shooting in less than a week.

Police gave few immediate details of the shooting and no known motive for the violence, which unfolded at about 3 p.m. at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, a north-central Colorado city at the eastern foot of the Rockies, about 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Denver.

Frantic shoppers and employees fled for cover through the supermarket as law enforcement officers swarmed the scene, located about 2 miles from the University of Colorado’s flagship campus.

Sarah Moonshadow, 42, a customer and Boulder resident who was in the store with her son, Nicholas, recounted scenes of pandemonium as gunfire rang out from inside the store.

“We were at the checkout, and shots just started going off,” Ms. Moonshadow told Reuters. “And I said, ‘Nicholas get down.’ And Nicholas ducked. And we just started listening and there, just repetitive shots … and I just said, ‘Nicholas, run.’”

Ms. Moonshadow said she tried to go to the aid of a victim she saw lying on the pavement just outside the store, but her son pulled her away, telling her, ‘We have to go.’” The woman broke down in sobs, adding, “I couldn’t help anybody.”

The bloodshed came less than a week after gun violence last Tuesday that left eight people dead, including six Asian women, at three day spas in and around Atlanta. A 21-year-old man has been charged with those killings.

Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said 10 people perished in the attack at King Soopers grocery. Among them was 51-year-old policeman Eric Talley, an 11-year veteran of the Boulder police force, who she said was the first officer at the scene.

Police said the suspected gunman was believed to be the only individual with serious injuries who survived the bloodshed. He was not publicly identified.

Video footage from the scene broadcast earlier by television stations showed a shirtless, bearded man in boxer shorts being led away from the store in handcuffs, before he was placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance. The man in custody appeared to have a bloody leg and was limping as he walked.

One man who said he was shopping inside the store with his wife told KCNC-TV that he heard three loud bangs he took for gunshots, and ran through the store with other customers to escape through a loading bay at the rear of the building.

He said the apparent shots sounded like they came from the checkout area at the front of the store.

Authorities gave few details about how the shooting unfolded. Commander Kerry Yamaguchi of the Boulder Police Department told reporters several hours after the fact that investigators were just starting to process the crime scene.

“Boulder has suffered a terrible and horrific mass shooting today,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said at a news conference later in the evening.

Video footage taken by an onlooker and posted to social media shows two bodies lying in the grocery store parking lot, before the person with the camera walks inside and films a third body lying there, as three shots are heard in the background.

The Table Mesa area of Boulder where the shooting occurred is home to a residential neighborhood and the hilltop laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Police declined to say what kind of weapon was used, but the Denver Post reported that initial 911-emergency calls described the suspect’s firearms as a “patrol rifle.” — Reuters