SOUTH Korea reported a new record high of 171,452 Covid-19 cases as of midnight yesterday, compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 2,329,182, the health authorities said today, reported Xinhua.

The daily caseload rose sharply from 99,573 the previous day, topping the previous high of 109,822 tallied on February 18, to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The recent resurgence was driven by infections in the Seoul metropolitan area amid the Omicron variant spread.

Of the new cases, 41,389 were Seoul residents. The number of the newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 53,524 and 11,060 respectively.

The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 65,298, or 38.1% of the total local transmission.

Among the new cases, 181 were imported, lifting the total to 28,554.

The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 512, up 32 from the previous day.

Ninety-nine more deaths were confirmed, taking the death toll to 7,607. The total fatality rate was 0.33%.

The country has administered Covid-19 vaccines to 44,819,897 people, or 87.3% of the total population, and the number of the fully inoculated people was 44,315,903, or 86.4% of the population.

The number of those who received booster jabs was 30,743,393 people, or 59.9% of the population. – Bernama, February 23, 2022.