South Korea's new COVID-19 cases back up over 10,000 after 20 days

Students sit at desks that no longer have plastic dividers meant to stop spread of COVID-19, at an elementary school in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, June 28. Yonhap

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases exceeded 10,000 for the first time in 20 days Tuesday, though in recent months the pandemic has shown a downward trend.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 10,258 new infections, including 205 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,349,756.

The pandemic has loosened its stranglehold on the country since mid-March when infections peaked at more than 621,000. Daily virus caseloads remained below 10,000 from June 10 until Tuesday.

But the pace of decline has slowed in recent days, and the government warned that the virus could pick up speed again, as the reproduction rate reached 1, Wednesday, from 0.74 for the first week of June.

The KDCA reported seven more deaths, raising the toll to 24,537 for a fatality rate of 0.13 percent.

The number of critically ill patients came to 59, down three from the previous day.

Of the 10,258 locally transmitted cases, Seoul accounted for 2,471, with the surrounding Gyeonggi Province reporting 2,643. There were 576 infections in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul. The three areas accounted for 55.4 percent of total infections.

The number of cases from overseas jumped more than 70 percent to 205 from 119 a day earlier amid increased international flights and eased virus restrictions on travel abroad.

The last time the number topped 200 was early February.

The health authorities warned of a virus resurgence as subvariants of Omicron are spreading and more people are traveling for summer holidays. (Yonhap)

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