Korea has confirmed 2,109 more cases of four major variants of the Covid-19 virus over the past week, including 1,928 cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant, health officials said Tuesday.
The cumulative caseload of variants’ infections reached 8,125, with the number of Delta cases tallied at 4,912, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The health authorities said the country would witness more cases of the variants down the road.
The rate of variant cases detected through gene analysis came to 67.6 percent in the past week, up sharply from 54.8 percent a week earlier.
Earlier in the day, the KDCA said the country confirmed two cases of the highly transmissible Delta plus variant of the novel coronavirus. It marks the first time the country has reported the Delta plus version cases, considered a sub-lineage of the Delta variant, the KDCA said. One of the delta plus cases is a man in his 40s who has never been overseas.
The two people infected by the Delta plus variant had received the AstraZeneca vaccines.
"A K417N mutation was additionally observed in the Covid-19 Delta plus variant," a KDCA official said. "The U.K. health authorities included the Delta plus variant in the Delta strain group and are monitoring as a whole. We are also keeping an eye on the same method, but no other characteristics of the variant have been confirmed yet."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum reiterated the calls for the public to refrain from traveling during the rest of the summer vacation season and spend the time resting at home.
Kim pointed out that the daily highway traffic volume reached a record high of 5.31 million on Friday during the summer vacation season.
"The number of daily confirmed cases across the country has exceeded 1,000 for the 28th day," Kim said. "The recent increase in the greater Seoul area has somewhat slowed down, but the overall infection trend continues."
Despite the government's appeal for infection control, many people are not wearing air masks in vacation spots. Some have been caught for holding pool parties or engaging in illegal late-night business.
Kim urged people to comply with the infection control measures, stressing that even countries like the U.S. with high vaccination rates are turning back to wearing masks as the Delta variant spreads worldwide.
According to a recent survey, 84 percent of the respondents showed a positive response to the extended Level 4 social distancing measure in the Seoul metro region implemented on July 23, while 12.8 percent of the voters were against the policy.
On Tuesday, the country saw 1,202 additional Covid-19 cases, including 1,152 local infections, increasing the cumulative caseload to 202,203, according to KDCA. The daily caseload has remained above 1,000 for 28 days since July 7 due to group infections confirmed across the nation, including the Seoul metro region and local areas.
Five more people died of the coronavirus, pushing the death toll to 2,104 with a fatality rate of 1.04 percent.
The government has vaccinated 19,947,507 people – 10,411,186 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, 7,533,169 with Pfizer's vaccine, 1,129,767 with Janssen's vaccine, 873,385 with Moderna's vaccine – with the first shot of the vaccine up 473,850 from the previous day.
Korea has completed vaccinating about 38.8 percent of the nation's population.