Delta variant accounts for 85% of new COVID-19 cases in Korea

The Delta variant accounts for over 85 percent of new COVID-19 cases in Korea. The country confirmed one more case of the Delta-plus variant. It was also found that one in five completely vaccinated residents and workers had a breakthrough infection at nursing homes, where cluster infections were reported recently.

According to the Central Disaster Safety and Countermeasure Headquarters on Tuesday, the Delta variant accounted for 85.3 percent of new COVID-19 cases in the past week (Aug. 8-14), up 12.2 percentage points from a week ago (Aug. 1-7). The number increased by over 25 folds compared to that of late June (3.3%).

A total of three people are infected with the Delta-plus variant in the country as a new patient was added this week. A woman in her 30s, who entered the country from the Philippines on July 31, developed respiratory symptoms from Aug. 8 while staying at an isolation facility. She was tested positive on Aug. 10 before she completed her quarantine. It was found that she has not been vaccinated. “We suspect that she was infected (with the Delta-plus variant) outside the country,” said Park Young-joon, head of the epidemiological investigation team at the state agency. “No one who contacted her was confirmed to have been infected.”

“This will be an important inflection point in the fourth wave of COVID-19 when people are returning to their daily lives after vacation,” Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said. He asked people to be tested for COVID-19 before returning to work regardless of whether they have symptoms or not.


ksy@donga.com