People wait to take COVID-19 tests at a clinic in Gangnam, southern Seoul, on Aug. 25, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases stayed above 100,000 for the fourth consecutive day Friday amid concerns over a resurgence of the omicron subvariant.
The country added 101,140 new COVID-19 infections, including 358 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 22,802,985, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
Daily infections jumped to 180,752 cases on Aug. 17 from 84,097 a day earlier. The daily tally then declined over the following five days, falling to 59,025 on Monday.
But the daily caseload rebounded to 150,219 on Tuesday before dropping to 139,324 on Wednesday and 113,371 on Thursday.
The country reported 81 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the death toll to 26,413, the KDCA said. The fatality rate stood at 0.12 percent.
The number of critically ill patients came to 575, up from 566 a day earlier.
As of 9 p.m., South Korea had reported 91,038 new cases, down 33,853 from the same time a week ago. Daily cases are counted until midnight and announced the following morning.
The recent decline in new infections raised cautious optimism that the latest virus wave may have passed its peak. But authorities remain on high alert over a possible resurgence in the COVID-19 pandemic this fall.
The KDCA said it expected the number of daily infections to show the reduction trend this week or next week, but the numbers of COVID-19 deaths and critically ill patients could increase in the next two to three weeks.
The health agency projected the numbers of critically ill patients and COVID-19 deaths could reach 800 to 900 and 100 to 140, respectively, in early September.
Of the locally transmitted 100,782 cases, Seoul reported 15,742 new cases, and Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital added 24,510 new infections.
Incheon, a port city 27 kilometers west of Seoul, identified 5,336 new cases. These three regions took up 45 percent of the daily caseload.
Since the first local confirmation of COVID-19 on Jan. 20, 2020, the country has gone through multiple major waves of the virus.
The latest wave came during the height of the summer vacation season, fueled by the highly transmissible omicron subvariant BA.5 and the eased virus curbs.
(Yonhap)
