People wait in line to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at a vaccination center in Seoul on Aug. 26, 2021, when inoculations for people aged 18-49 began nationwide. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s daily new coronavirus cases fell to slightly under 1,900 on Thursday, while daily COVID-19 deaths hit the highest number since the fourth wave of the pandemic began, as health authorities scrambled to add critical-care hospital beds.
The country added 1,882 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,829 local infections, raising the total caseload to 243,317, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Thursday’s tally compares with 1,628 on Sunday, 1,418 on Monday, 1,509 on Tuesday and 2,155 on Wednesday. Daily cases have stayed above 1,000 for 51 days in a row.
The country added 20 more deaths from COVID-19, raising the death toll to 2,257, the KDCA said. It marked the worst daily death toll since the fourth wave took hold in early July.
With the highly contagious delta variant sweeping the nation, beds for critical COVID-19 patients have dwindled.
As of Tuesday, 30.3 percent of 833 critical-care hospital beds were available, but some regions, including Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province, have only one intensive care unit bed each, according to the KDCA.
Later in the day, health authorities and local governments said 1,682 more cases were confirmed as of 9 p.m., 52 fewer than at the same time the previous day. The number of daily cases to be announced Friday is expected to be in the 1,800s.
The KDCA compiles data on additional cases through midnight and announces the daily tally the following morning.
Despite six weeks of the toughest restrictions in the greater Seoul area, the fourth wave of the pandemic has shown no signs of abating as the delta-driven infections have complicated antivirus measures.
The wider Seoul area, where half of the nation’s 52 million population lives, has been under Level 4 restrictions, the highest of the four-tier virus curbs, for the past six weeks, while most other areas have implemented Level 3 distancing for the last four weeks.
The current social distancing measures were extended Monday until Sept. 5.
Under the tougher measures, restaurants and cafes will be required to close at 9 p.m., an hour earlier than the current nighttime curfew.
The semi-lockdown measures prohibit gatherings of more than two people after 6 p.m. and ban the operation of nightclubs and other entertainment venues.
Seen here is a COVID-19 vaccination center in Seoul on Aug. 26, 2021, when inoculations for people aged 18-49 began nationwide. (Yonhap)
As of Thursday, 27.07 million people, or 52.7 percent of the population, have received their first shots of COVID-19 vaccines, and 13.35 million people have been fully vaccinated, the KDCA said.
The government aims to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the nation’s population by September to create herd immunity in November.
Beginning Thursday, health authorities started inoculating people aged between 18 and 49, or 15.23 million people. About 67 percent of them have made appointments for their first doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
To speed up vaccinations, health authorities allowed more people aged between 18 and 49 to get vaccinated ahead of next month’s fall harvest Chuseok holiday, set for Sept. 20-22.
Of 35,826 people aged between 18 and 49 who have tested positive for COVID-19 since May 1, 92.7 percent of them were unvaccinated, the KDCA said. Only 2.1 percent of them reported breakthrough COVID-19 infections, it said.
Sohn Young-rae, a senior health official, told reporters that the government is set to launch a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19, with 800,000 to 1 million people per day getting vaccinated.
In order to switch to a “with COVID” system, referring to coexistence with the coronavirus, KDCA chief Jeong Eun-kyeong said the country needs to see 90 percent of senior citizens and 80 percent of the adult population vaccinated by end-October.
Of the newly confirmed domestic cases announced in the morning, 566 were from Seoul, 504 from the surrounding Gyeonggi Province and 98 from the western port city of Incheon, the authorities said.
The southeastern port city of Busan identified 77 new patients, and South Gyeongsang Province had 64 more, they said.
The number of patients with serious symptoms across the country reached 425.
The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries was 212,871, up 1,694 from the previous day.
(Yonhap)
