S. Korea reports 7,456 more Covid cases

Seoul, Dec 22 (IANS) South Korea reported 7,456 more cases of Covid-19 as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 583,065.

The daily caseload was up from 5,202 in the previous day, rising above 7,000 in three days due to higher virus tests on weekdays.

The recent resurgence was attributable to small cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area, Xinhua news agency reported.

Of the new cases, 2,779 were Seoul residents. The number of newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 2,192 and 475, respectively.

The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 1,919, or 26.1 per cent of the total local transmission.

The number of the Omicron variant infections was 234, including 74 imported cases and 160 domestic transmissions, up seven from the prior day.

Ninety-one cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 16,537.

The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 1,063, up 41 from the previous day.

Seventy-eight more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 4,906. The total fatality rate was 0.84 per cent.

The country has administered Covid vaccines to 43,703,161 people, or 85.1 per cent of the total population, and the number of fully inoculated people was 42,175,680, or 82.1 per cent of the population.

The number of those who received booster shots was 13,081,896, or 25.5 per cent of the population.