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| South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed above 400 on Saturday, the second day of mass vaccinations, as sporadic cluster infections continued to linger throughout the nation. Yonhap |
Daily new COVID-19 cases in Korea stayed above 400, Friday, following the start of the government's mass vaccination program, as sporadic infection clusters continued to linger nationwide.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 415 more coronavirus infections, including 405 local ones, raising the total caseload to 89,321.
The daily cases mark a rise from 406 tallied Thursday. The figure reached a weekly low of 332, Monday, before gradually increasing throughout the week with some ups and downs due to the infection clusters.
Ten more fatalities were also reported, raising the death toll to 1,595.
South Korea launched its first vaccination campaign Friday starting with health care workers and patients at nursing facilities and hospitals nationwide with the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is deemed more convenient for mass inoculations as it can be stored at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius, compared with the Pfizer vaccine that requires ultra-cold chain storage.
Medical workers at hospitals treating patients with COVID-19 started receiving the Pfizer vaccine ― the first batch acquired through the World Health Organization's global vaccine COVAX Facility project ― Saturday.
The government is targeting herd immunity for the country by November.
Meanwhile, the administration decided to keep the current level of social distancing for another two weeks through March 14. The regulations were originally planned to run through Sunday.
The capital area, home to around half of the country's 52-million population, is currently under Level 2 distancing, the third highest in the five-tier system. Restaurants and bars in the capital area are allowed to remain open for an hour longer until 10 p.m.
Bans on the gathering of five or more people, however, are still in place nationwide.
Next week, the draft of a new social distancing system will be unveiled to allow the government to receive public opinion on it before finalizing the plan.
Of the 405 locally transmitted infections, 130 cases were reported in Seoul and 166 in the surrounding Gyeonggi Province. Incheon, 40 kilometers west of the capital, added 27 cases.
There were 10 cases from overseas.
The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients came to 142, down two from the previous day.
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