SEOUL, Dec 15 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea registered a record high new daily COVID-19 cases, as the eased anti-virus measures led to surging cases in the greater Seoul area, the health authorities said today.
The country reported 7,850 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight, raising the total number of infections to 536,495, according to the Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
The daily caseload was sharply up from 5,567 the previous day, topping the previous record of 7,174, tallied on Dec 8.
The recent resurgence was attributable to small cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.
Of the new cases, 3,157 were Seoul residents. The number of newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 2,296 and 475.
The virus spread also raged in non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 1,900, or 24.3 percent of the total local transmission.
The number of Omicron variant infections was 128, including 33 imported cases and 95 domestic transmissions, up nine from the previous day.
Altogether 22 cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 16,169.
The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 964, up 58 from the previous day. Seventy more deaths were confirmed, taking the death toll to 4,456. The total fatality rate was 0.83 percent.
The country administered vaccines to 43,104,019 people, or 83.9 percent of the total population, and the number of fully inoculated people was 41,807,882, or 81.4 percent of the population.
The number of those who received booster shots was 7,937,480 people or 15.5 percent of the population.– NNN-YONHAP
