Seoul's daily COVID-19 infections exceed 5,000 for 1st time

A medical worker passes by people as they wait for COVID-19 tests at a makeshift testing site in Seoul, Feb. 3. AP-Yonhap

New daily COVID-19 infections in Seoul have surpassed 5,000 for the first time, setting an all-time high for the second consecutive day, officials said Thursday.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government reported 5,218 new cases for Wednesday, up 1,009 from the previous high of 4,209 tallied the previous day. The latest tally was 1,789 higher than the 3,429 recorded a week ago.

Of the total, only 27 were cases of travelers from abroad.

The proportion of the Omicron variant among new weekly infections rose to 60.5 percent last week from 25.6 percent the previous week, according to the city government.

During the Lunar New Year holiday that ran from Saturday through Wednesday, the number of daily COVID-19 tests almost halved from Friday's total of 150,000, but daily infections continued to increase except Monday.

The capital will likely see a further jump in daily cases as the number of virus tests, excluding self-tests, surged back to over 130,000, Wednesday.

It usually takes a day for virus test results to come out.

Following the reintroduction of strict social distancing rules in December, Seoul's daily virus tally fell to the 700s in mid-January but jumped back to over 3,000, Jan. 25, and exceeded 4,000 for the first time last Friday.

The accumulated total of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the capital came to 290,883, with the death toll reaching 2,191. (Yonhap)