SEOUL – South Korea’s new daily Covid-19 cases stayed below 2,000 for a third straight day today as health authorities brace for potential upticks after another extended weekend.
The country added 1,297 more Covid-19 cases, including 1,284 local infections, raising the total caseload to 332,816, according to Yonhap quoting the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
This is the first time since August 2 that daily cases were counted in the 1,200s.
The country added eight more deaths from Covid-19, raising the death toll to 2,583. The fatality rate was 0.78%.
The daily number of Covid-19 cases has been staying in the quadruple digits since July 7. Daily infections fell below the 2,000 mark last Saturday after reporting more than 2,000 cases per day from Wednesday to Friday.
But the authorities believe Covid-19 infections are not on a downward trend as the latest tally reflects fewer tests over the weekend.
They are concerned about a potential spike in new cases following a prolonged weekend ending today, which is a substitute holiday for Hangeul Day on October 9, which celebrates the proclamation of the Korean alphabet.
KDCA said 39.92 million people, or 77.7% of the population, have received their first shots of Covid-19 vaccines since February when South Korea began its inoculation campaign. The number of fully vaccinated people stood at 30.44 million, or 59.3%.
So far, 306,445 cases of suspected post-vaccination side effects have been reported, with 2,161 counted in the past two days. More than 96% of the cases were mild symptoms, such as muscle pain and fever.
There have been 751 deaths after vaccination, though the authorities have yet to find a causal relationship between inoculation and death in most cases. – Bernama, October 11, 2021
