New COVID-19 cases rise above 700 amid sporadic infections across nation

A man gets a COVID-19 testing at a makeshift testing site near Seoul Station, June 5. Yonhap

Daily new COVID-19 cases bounced back to over 700 here for Friday, as infection clusters continued to sprout up nationwide despite a stepped-up vaccination campaign.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 744 more coronavirus cases, including 725 local infections, and raising the total caseload to 143,596. The latest tally marked the highest since May 26 when 706 new cases were reported.

There were two additional fatalities, raising the total death toll to 1,971.

This week, the country has seen its daily virus count rise from 430 last Sunday to 677 on Wednesday and 695 on Thursday, as sporadic infections continued to erupt at workplaces, restaurants, bars and saunas.

The health authorities remain on guard against continued infections and more transmissible variant cases while ramping up efforts to inoculate the elderly population, who are considered more vulnerable to the coronavirus.

The authorities expect to achieve the goal of inoculating over 13 million, or a quarter of the nation’s population, by the end of June, if the smooth supply of vaccines is ensured, including the predawn arrival of 1 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine from the United States, Saturday.

A total of 7.45 million people, including 367,761 the previous day, have received their first shots since the vaccine rollout began Feb. 26, or 14.5 percent of the total population.

Vaccine doses from AstraZeneca and Pfizer were administered to 4.83 million and 2.62 million people, respectively.

The KDCA said 2.27 million people, or 4.4 percent of the total population, have been fully vaccinated, with 29,584 receiving their second shots Friday.

Of the locally transmitted cases, 274 were in Seoul and 206 came from the surrounding Gyeonggi Province.

There were 19 additional imported cases, with 11 coming from other Asian nations, excluding China.

The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients was 151; while the total released from quarantine after making a recovery was 133,763, up 474 from Thursday. (Yonhap)