SEOUL, South Korea’s daily virus cases exceeded 30,000 for the first time to hit another all-time high of over 36,000 on Saturday amid fast spread of the omicron variant after a holiday season.
The country reported 36,362 new COVID-19 infections, including 36,162 local cases, raising the total to 971,018, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The latest figure is a whopping increase of nearly 9,000 from the previous daily record of 27,443 reported on Friday.
New infections have spiked drastically in recent days, breaking the 20,000 mark for the first time Wednesday, just a week after it topped 10,000 daily cases on Jan. 26. New daily cases have soared by nearly five-fold in the past two weeks.
The death toll from COVID-19 came to 6,858, up 22 from a day earlier. The fatality rate was 0.71 percent.
The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients was 269, up 12 from the previous day.
At-home care patients rose 13,175 from the previous day to a total of 118,032, surpassing the country’s maximum care capacity of 109,000 for those treated at home.
Health authorities have warned that the three-day Lunar New Year holiday, which ended Wednesday, could send virus cases to new heights in the weeks to come with daily infections possibly reaching 100,000.
On Friday, South Korea decided to extend the current social distancing curbs for two more weeks through Feb. 20, under which private gatherings of more than six people are banned and businesses are subject to a 9 p.m. curfew.
On Thursday, the country also began allowing hospitals and medical clinics to conduct rapid antigen tests to effectively deal with the omicron-fueled COVID-19 wave.
Under the new system, only those who test positive in self-test kits will be able to receive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in principle. People aged over 60 or in high-risk groups, such as those with underlying health conditions, will be prioritized for PCR tests.
Of the locally transmitted cases, Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul reported 10,419, followed by Seoul with 8,564 and the western port city of Incheon with 2,494. Cases from overseas rose 200 to 26,167.
As of Saturday, 27.95 million people, or 54.5 percent of the country’s 52 million population, had received booster shots. The number of fully vaccinated people came to 44.09 million people, accounting for 85.9 percent.
Source: Yonhap News Agency