New virus cases on Saturday near 800 for 2nd day on increased cluster infections

New daily COVID-19 infections here stayed in the high 700s for the second straight day Friday as community infections and untraceable cases continued to spread across the country.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) country reported 785 more coronavirus cases, including 760 local ones, raising the total caseload to 118,243.

Daily infections soared to the 700 range Wednesday, deepening worries over another wave of the pandemic in Korea.

Untraceable cases accounted for 29 percent of all infections reported in the past two weeks, the highest ever. The defense ministry said Friday that 39 confirmed cases were reported on the Navy's amphibious landing ship Gojunbong.

The KDCA said there had been one more death, raising the total to 1,812 at a fatality rate of 1.53 percent.

The greater Seoul area where more than half of the country's 52 million people resides is under Level 2 social distancing, the third highest in the government's five-tier plan, with the rest of the country under Level 1.5.

The current social distancing level will be effective until May 2, while private gatherings of five or more people are banned nationwide.

On Friday, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), the country's drug safety agency, gave conditional approval for two types of COVID-19 self-test kits developed by local biotech firms SD Biosensor and Humasis as supplementary tools to bolster its coronavirus testing capacity.

The conditional approval will allow the two kits to be used domestically until fully approved products are rolle out.

Amid global vaccine shortage concerns, the country has said it has secured vaccines to inoculate 79 million people.

As of midnight Friday, 2,195,492 people, or 4.3 percent of the population, had received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, up 158,581 from the previous day, with 98,767 people, or 0.2 percent of the population, had been vaccinated with two doses, up 19,613.

AstraZeneca's vaccine made up 1,277,777 of these, while Pfizer's accounted for 917,715, according to the KDCA.

A total of 13,332 cases of side effects after vaccinations have been reported, though 13,095 of them were mild.

The KDCA reported that there have been 56 deaths after vaccination.

The health authorities aim to create herd immunity by November, after the country started its inoculation campaign in late February.

There are currently 204 vaccination centers nationwide, but the country plans to open an additional 53 next Thursday to speed up the process.

Of the newly confirmed locally transmitted cases, 509 cases came from the capital area, with 251 from Seoul, 241 from Gyeonggi Province and 17 from Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul.

The southern port city of Busan, the country's second-largest city, reported 44 more cases.

There were 25 additional imported cases, down 14 from a day earlier. The country's total number of imported cases is now at 8,145.

The number of people released from quarantine after making full recovery was 107,781, up 710 from the previous day, while 8,650 people were in isolation for COVID-19 treatment, up 74 from Thursday. (Yonhap)