New virus cases stay below 200 for fourth day
A man wearing a face mask walks near a banner displaying as a part of campaign to overcome the coronavirus in Seoul, Friday, Sept. 4, 2020. AP
The number of additional new coronavirus cases in South Korea stayed below 200 for the fourth straight day on Sunday, but health authorities are staying vigilant over sporadic cluster outbreaks.
The country reported 167 new COVID-19 cases, including 152 local infections, raising the total caseload to 21,177, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
South Korea has been posting triple-digit rises for more than three weeks due to cluster infections mostly tied to a slew of churches and an anti-government rally in central Seoul in mid-August.
A majority of the new locally transmitted cases came from the greater Seoul area, including 63 in Seoul and 45 in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province. Incheon, west of Seoul, also reported nine cases.
The number of newly identified imported cases stood at 15, with four of them detected at quarantine checkpoints at airports and harbors. The country's total number of imported cases is now at 2,892.
South Korea reported one more death from the coronavirus, raising the death toll to 334. The country's virus fatality rate is now at 1.58 percent.
But the country could experience more deaths from the virus as the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients reached 163, up four from a day earlier.
The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries stood at 16,146, up 137 from the previous day, with 4,697 people isolated for COVID-19 treatment, up 29 from a day ago. (Yonhap)