New virus cases bounce back to over 400; new vaccine deals signed
A medical worker in a booth takes a nasal sample from a man at a coronavirus testing site in Seoul, Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. AP
South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back to over 400 on Tuesday after the four-day long Lunar New Year holiday, while the government signed deals to secure additional COVID-19 vaccines to better fight the pandemic.
The country reported 457 more COVID-19 cases, including 429 local infections, raising the total caseload to 84,325, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The country added seven more deaths, raising the total to 1,534.
Tuesday's daily caseload was higher than the level seen over the past three days when the daily cases remained in the 300s, in part because fewer people were tested for the coronavirus over the holiday that ran from Thursday.
The virus curve has been slowly flattening since the third wave of pandemic peaked in late December, but the daily new cases remain higher than those in early November when fewer than 200 cases were reported.
A series of infections at religious facilities and hospitals have posed challenges to the country's antivirus efforts, coupled with the spread of more contagious variants.
South Korea has identified 94 cases of COVID-19 variants from Britain, South Africa and Brazil since December.
In response to growing outcry from small merchants, authorities on Monday lowered the social distancing to Level 2 ― the third highest in a five-tier system ― for the greater Seoul metropolitan area and Level 1.5 for other areas, effective for two weeks.
The adjustment allows restaurants, coffee shops and gyms in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province to remain open for an hour longer until 10 p.m. Nightclubs, karaoke bars and other entertainment venues will be allowed to reopen, after having been closed since November, until 10 p.m.
South Korea is set to begin its first inoculations against the new coronavirus on Feb. 26 with AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, but the inoculation of seniors aged 65 and older will be put on hold amid efficacy concerns.
To assuage concerns over lack of vaccines for the elderly population, the government signed deals procure additional vaccines to inoculate 23 million people.
Novavax will provide vaccines for 20 million people, which are expected to be ready for inoculation by the second quarter, and Pfizer will ship vaccines for 3 million also during the second quarter.
Together with the vaccines for 56 million people already signed with the World Health Organization's global vaccine COVAX Facility project and separate contracts with foreign drug firms, the total amount would be able to inoculate 79 million, more than the nation's 52 million population.
Of the 429 locally transmitted cases, 155 cases were registered in Seoul and 129 in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province. Incheon, west of Seoul, had 19 new cases. The greater Seoul area accounts for around half of the nation's population.
The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients was 166, up 10 from the previous day.
The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries was 74,551, up 757 from a day earlier. (Yonhap)