January 17
South Korea reported 3,859 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Sunday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 696,032.
The daily caseload was down from 4,193 in the previous day due to fewer virus tests over the weekend.
The recent resurgence was attributable to small cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.
Of the new cases, 711 were Seoul residents. The numbers of the newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon were 1,351 and 187 respectively.
The virus spread also raged in non-metropolitan regions. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 1,306, or 36.7 percent of the total local transmission.
Among the new cases, 308 were imported from overseas, lifting the total to 21,624.
The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 579, down 33 from the previous day.
Twenty-three more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 6,333. The total fatality rate was 0.91 percent.
The country has administered COVID-19 vaccines to 44,485,593 people, or 86.7 percent of the total population, and the number of the fully inoculated people was 43,507,434, or 84.8 percent of the population.
The number of those who received booster jabs was 23,354,003 people, or 45.5 percent of the population.
xinhua
