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| An Imperial guard wearing a face mask to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus stands outside the Gwanghwamun in Seoul, Monday, March 1, 2021. AP |
South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back to over 400 on Wednesday in the face of a mass infection among foreign nationals as the country's vaccination scheme is set to go into a full swing.
The country reported 444 more COVID-19 cases, including 426 local infections, raising the total caseload to 90,816, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The tally was a sharp increase from the 344 recorded previous day after health officials confirmed more than 90 cases among nearly 4,000 expatriates living in Dongducheon, 40 kilometers north of Seoul.
The country added six more deaths from COVID-19, raising the total to 1,612. The fatality rate was 1.78 percent.
South Korea reported more than 1,000 daily cases in late December before it saw a downward trend. The daily tally has been hovering around 300 and 400 in the past seven days.
The country launched a mass vaccination campaign last Friday starting with the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and extended the current social distancing rules for another two weeks through March 14.
The country has administered vaccinations to a total of 87,428 people so far, with an additional 63,644 getting the shots the previous day, according to the KDCA. AstraZeneca's vaccine accounted for 85,904, while Pfizer's took up 1,524. The country aims to achieve herd immunity by November.
The vaccination campaign is expected to gather pace as more medical workers and those at nursing homes get the vaccine shots down the road.
A total of 156 cases of side effects after vaccinations have been reported so far, although all of them are just mild symptoms, such as a fever.
The greater Seoul area, home to about half of the nation's 52 million population, is under Level 2, the third highest in its five-tier system, and other regions are placed under Level 1.5. Private gatherings of five or more people are banned.
Health authorities are staying alert as the new school semester began Tuesday amid lingering concerns of sporadic cluster infections.
Of the locally transmitted cases, 116 additional cases were reported in Seoul and 218 in Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital. Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, identified 19 new cases.
There were an additional 18 imported cases, increasing the total to 7,106. Of the new imported cases, five were from the United States followed by France with three.
The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients was 129, down six from the previous day
The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries was 81,700, up 362 from a day earlier, with 7,504 people being isolated for COVID-19 treatment, up 76 from a day ago.
South Korea has carried out 6,716,203 COVID-19 tests, including 34,227 from the previous day. (Yonhap)
