Increase in Seouls Corona Cases

SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap/APP): South Korea’s daily new coronavirus cases surpassed the 1,000 marks Thursday for the second day in a row as an alarming increase in cluster infections across the country continued, prompting health authorities to seriously consider adopting the toughest virus curbs.

The country added 1,014 more COVID-19 cases, including 993 local infections, raising the total caseload to 46,453, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The KDCA said the country reported another daily high of 22 COVID-19 deaths, sharply up from 13 a day earlier, raising the total caseload to 634, indicating that the rising number of seriously ill virus patients may lead to more deaths down the road.

The authorities, however, attributed a sharp rise in the death toll to rising cases, noting that there has been no mutation with a high mortality rate reported. Thursday’s daily caseload is slightly down from a daily record high of 1,078 on Wednesday.

After falling to 718 on Monday due to fewer tests carried out over the weekend, infections rebounded to 880 on Tuesday, as health authorities expanded free COVID-19 tests to find more potential cases.

Health authorities have warned the country’s daily virus caseload may reach up to 1,200. Noticeably, an average of 882.6 new daily local infections occurred over the past one week, the KDCA said.

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