SEOUL-- President Moon Jae-in called Wednesday for faster response measures to curb the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant after the country's daily coronavirus cases shot up to over 13,000.

Moon made the remarks as he presided over a COVID-19 response meeting earlier in the day, according to Park Soo-hyun, a senior presidential secretary for public communication.

Moon also told the meeting that the government must sufficiently secure hospital beds for children and consider offering free self-test kits to low-income people, Park said.

On Wednesday, South Korea added 13,012 new cases, taking the total caseload to 762,983.

Source: Yonhap News Agency