S. Korea reports 4,388 more Covid-19 cases

Seoul, Jan 12 (IANS) South Korea reported 4,388 more confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 674,868.

The daily caseload was up from 3,095 in the previous day due to the higher number of virus tests in the middle of the week.

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

Of the new cases, 973 were Seoul residents. The number of newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 1,567 and 243, respectively.

The coronavirus also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new confirmed infections in the non-capital areas was 1,224, or 30.5 per cent of the total local transmissions.

Among the new cases, 381 were imported from overseas, lifting the total number to 19,800.

The number of the infected people in a serious condition stood at 749, down by 31 from the previous day.

Fifty-two more deaths from the Covid were confirmed in the Asian country, bringing the overall death toll to 6,166. The total fatality rate stands currently at 0.91 per cent.

The country has administered Covid vaccines to 44,411,026 people, or 86.5 per cent of the total population, and the number of fully vaccinated people has risen to 43,219,688, or 84.2 per cent of the population.

The number of those who received booster jabs has risen to 21,815,253, or 42.5 per cent of the population.