South Korea, New Zealand and Hong Kong report record Covid-19 cases – The Straits Times

SEOUL (XINHUA, REUTERS) South Korea New Zealand and Hong Kong reported a record number of Covid-19 cases on Saturday (Feb 5), mostly fuelled by the highly infectious Omicron variant.

South Korea reported 36,362 more cases of Covid-19 for the past 24 hours, up from 27,443 the previous day and surpassing 36,000 for the first time, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The recent resurgence was driven by cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, which became a dominant strain.

Of the new cases, 8,564 were Seoul residents. The number of the newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 10,419 and 2,494 respectively.

The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region.

The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 14,685, or 40.6 per cent of the total local transmission.

Among the new cases, 200 were imported from overseas.

The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 269, up 12 from the previous day.

Twenty-two more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 6,858. The total fatality rate was 0.71 per cent.

The country has fully inoculated 85.9 per cent of the population and 54.5 per cent have had their boosters.

New Zealand too warned of more Covid-19 cases coming its way as it hit a record 243 community cases on Saturday.

Officials urged people in the highly vaccinated nation not to panic.

The country of five million people has kept its borders closed since early 2020. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday a full reopening will happen only by October.

The border closure, combined with lockdowns and strict social distancing rules have limited the spread of the coronavirus, with just over 17,000 infections and 53 related deaths.

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South Korea, New Zealand and Hong Kong report record Covid-19 cases - The Straits Times