S Korea reports 118,504 new COVID-19 cases

Seoul : South Korea recorded 118,504 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, bringing the total number of infections to 16,471,940, the health authorities said Tuesday.

The daily caseload was up from 47,743 tallied the previous day, but it was far lower than 210,732 recorded a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The health authorities believe that the daily caseload has been on the decline following the resurgence driven by the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant and its sub-variant BA.2, which peaked in mid-March.

Among the new infections, 20 were imported cases, lifting the total to 31,618.

The latest number of infected people who are in serious condition stands at 834, down by 16 from the previous day.

A further 130 deaths were confirmed from the pandemic, taking the death toll to 21,354. The total fatality rate stands currently at 0.13 percent.

The latest number of people who have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines is 44,527,909, or 86.8 percent of the total population, and that of those getting booster jabs is 33,017,514, or 64.3 percent of the population. (ANI/Xinhua)