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| A health officer wearing protective gear directs visitors waiting in line to get a COVID-19 test at a temporary screening clinic in Seoul, Sept. 24. AP-Yonhap |
Daily new COVID-19 infections exceeded 3,000, Friday, for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic as people returned home from the Chuseok holiday.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported a new all-time high of 3,273 cases, including 3,245 local ones, raising the total caseload to 298,402.
Friday's number jumped 839 from the previous day's high of 2,434 ― then also a new record ― marking the highest since the country reported its first COVID-19 case in January last year.
The surge in daily cases came as millions of South Koreans returned home after the Chuseok holiday, the Korean autumn harvest celebration, which ran from Monday to Wednesday.
Daily cases have stayed over 1,000 for the last 81 days amid the fast spread of the more transmissible Delta variant nationwide.
Seven more deaths were reported, raising the toll to 2,441 at a fatality rate of 0.82 percent.
The Seoul metropolitan area, home to half of the nation's 52 million population, accounted for 77 percent of the new infections.
Seoul reported 1,222 cases, the first time the figure has surpassed 1,000; while there were 1,102 in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, and 201 in the western port city of Incheon.
The KDCA has warned of a further hike in cases, as around 1 million people are awaiting their coronavirus test results following the mass holiday migration during Chuseok.
The greater Seoul area, the hotbed of the country's latest wave of the pandemic, has been under Level 4 distancing measures, the highest in the country's four-tier system, since July with most other areas being under Level 3.
A ban on private gatherings was eased during the holiday, allowing up to eight people to gather on the condition that four of them were fully vaccinated.
But the authorities tightened the restriction again Friday, limiting the number attending such gatherings to a maximum of six.
A total of 37.8 million people, or 74 percent of the country's population, have received their first shots of COVID-19 vaccines, and 23 million people, or 45 percent, have been fully vaccinated, the KDCA said.
Imported cases came to 28, including four from Uzbekistan, and three each from Myanmar and Mongolia.
The number of patients with serious symptoms across the country reached 339, up 30 from the previous day, while people released from quarantine after making a recovery numbered 266,414, up 1,922. (Yonhap)
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