S.Korea reports 4,444 new COVID-19 cases

SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) — South Korea reported 4,444 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 649,669.

The daily caseload was up from 3,024 in the previous day due to higher virus tests in the middle of the week.

The recent resurgence was attributable to small cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Of the new cases, 1,346 were Seoul residents. The number of the newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 1,416 and 261 respectively.

The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 1,210, or 28.6 percent of the total local transmission.

Among the new cases, 211 were imported from overseas, lifting the total to 18,077.

The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 953, down 20 from the previous day.

Fifty-seven more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 5,838. The total fatality rate was 0.90 percent.

Read more: Omicron variant of COVID-19 detected in Cape Verde

The country has administered COVID-19 vaccines to 44,268,774 people, or 86.3 percent of the total population, and the number of fully inoculated people was 42,679,758, or 83.2 percent of the population.

The number of those who received booster jabs was 19,336,893 people, or 37.7 percent of the population.  Enditem