Korea hit yet another Covid-19 related grim milestone as the total Covid-19 deaths surpassed 30,000 on Sunday.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters, the cumulative number of deaths from Covid-19 reached 30,031 on Sunday, exceeding 30,000.

The death toll reached 30,000 in about seven months after reaching 20,000 on April 13, during the Omicron outbreak. Korea reported its first Covid-19 death in February 2020.

Data from Our World in Data, an international statistics site, showed that Korea had the 35th-highest cumulative death toll in the world as of last Wednesday.

The U.S. has the highest Covid-19 related death, with 1,075,951, followed by Brazil (688,764), India (530,546), Russia (383,320), and Mexico (330,444).

Despite Korea having one of the highest numbers of confirmed cases in the world, the number of deaths is relatively small compared to the total caseload.

As of last Wednesday, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Korea is 26,412,901, a little more than half of the total population, and it had the seventh most cases worldwide.

However, the number of deaths per million people was 577.53 in Korea, lower than the global average of 829.77.

The Covid-19 fatality rate is currently at 0.11 percent, which is still higher than the flu fatality rate, but significantly lower than the initial Covid-19 19 fatality rate, which was over 2 percent.

With the fatality recently increasing, authorities have expressed concerns about the vaccination rate, which has hardly risen.

As of midnight last Thursday, the winter booster vaccination rate for those over 60 was only 12.4 percent.

“If the scale of the winter epidemic is similar to that of summer, there is a risk that the number of deaths will rise to 150 to 200 per day at the peak due to low vaccination rates for the elderly and vulnerable facilities,” Professor Eom Joong-sik, an infectious disease expert at Gachon University Gil Medical Center said.

To boost vaccination rates, the government has set a goal of inoculating 50 percent of the elderly over the age of 60 and 60 percent of residents, users, and workers of vulnerable facilities, and is encouraging vaccination, while preparing additional measures to secure hospital beds in preparation for the spread of the epidemic.

On Monday, The country added 23,091 new Covid-19 infections, including 61 cases from abroad, bringing the total caseload to 26,581,856, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The nation also reported 35 more Covid-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 30,066. The fatality rate stood at 0.11 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 465, the KDCA said.

According to the KDCA, about 44.69 million among 52 million Koreans have been fully vaccinated. In addition, about 33.698 million people had received their first booster shots, and 7.58 million had their second booster shots.