Daily infections eclipse 200,000 for 1st time

Seoul: South Korea’s daily coronavirus cases have surpassed 200,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, health authorities said Wednesday.

In South Korea, infections have spiked since last December when the first case of the highly contagious omicron variant was reported.  

According to Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the country has confirmed 219,241 new cases and 96 deaths in last 24 hours—bringing the total caseload to over 3.49 million.

South Korea’s COVID death toll has reached 8,266.

During last seven days, the country reported over 1.16 million and 659 deaths.

In the meantime, the government suspended the mandatory vaccine pass system for public places— including restaurants, cafes, departmental stores, movie theaters, and museums nationwide on Tuesday.

So far, the number of fully vaccinated people is 44.37 million (86.5%). However, 31.51 million people (61.4%) of the country's 52 million population, has received booster shots.