In this photo taken on Feb. 19, 2022, and provided by Gwangju Metropolitan City, a woman wearing a gas mask waits to receive her coronavirus test result at a clinic in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul.
SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s total COVID-19 caseload surpassed 2 million on Sunday, just two weeks after reaching the 1 million mark, amid the fast spread of the omicron variant.
As of 9 p.m., local governments had reported 93,260 new COVID-19 cases, down 7,252 from the 100,512 posted the same time the previous day, which was the largest-ever number for that time.
Still, the new cases pushed the accumulated total to over 2 million in a country of around 52 million.
The fresh milestone came only two weeks after the nation surpassed the 1 million mark, two years after detecting its first case of COVID-19.
Earlier Sunday, the country reported 104,829 new COVID-19 infections, including 104,732 local cases, raising the total caseload to 1,962,837, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
It was the third day in a row the daily count had exceeded 100,000.
The death toll from COVID-19 came to 7,405, up 51 from a day earlier. The fatality rate was 0.38 percent, the KDCA said.
The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients was up 31 to 439.
Of the locally transmitted cases, Seoul registered 22,100 new cases while the surrounding Gyeonggi Province and the western port city of Incheon added 31,326 and 9,188 cases, respectively. Cases from overseas rose 97 to 28,100.
Daily cases in the military exceeded 600 for the third straight day Sunday, raising the total caseload among its personnel to 12,197, the defense ministry said.
This photo taken on Feb. 18, 2022, shows people lined up to take a coronavirus test at a makeshift testing center in eastern Seoul. (Yonhap)
South Korea has seen caseloads spike in recent weeks as the omicron variant raged across the country, with the daily counts nearly doubling in just a week after surpassing 50,000 for the first time on Feb. 10.
The daily caseload exceeded 100,000 for the first time on Friday.
Despite the virus surge, the government on Friday decided to ease the business hour curfews for cafes and restaurants by one hour to 10 p.m., for the next three weeks, a move unwelcomed by some experts amid concerns over a further virus uptick.
The decision came amid a strong backlash from small merchants and self-employed people who have complained that prolonged antivirus measures are dragging down sales.
The partially relaxed antivirus curbs will be in place until March 13, with the cap on private gatherings unchanged at six people, the health agency said.
As of Sunday, 30.46 million people, or 59.4 percent of the country’s 52 million population, had received booster shots. The number of fully vaccinated people came to 44.30 million, accounting for 86.3 percent, it said.
(Yonhap)
