South Korea Records 2,223 COVID-19 Cases A Day, Highest Since The Beginning Of The Pandemic

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JAKARTA - South Korea (South Korea) reported more than 2,200 daily cases of COVID-19, the highest figure since the start of the pandemic, Health Minister Kown Deok-cheol said on Wednesday.

The country is grappling with the latest outbreak of the coronavirus, sparked by the highly contagious Delta variant.

Despite implementing strict restrictions for more than a month, cases of infection are still growing.

Apart from Delta, the high volume of domestic travel in the summer has triggered an increase in cases, Kwon said at a COVID response meeting.

He also noted that the increase in "silent spreaders" in communities such as workplaces, indoor gyms, churches and nursing homes, has led to a rise in cases of infections of unknown origin.

South Korea has been battling since July to tame a sporadic COVID-19 outbreak that was initially centered in the metropolis of Seoul but has now spread across the country.

Nearly half of the new cases discovered recently were from outside Seoul and in summer vacation spots.

Authorities are concerned about how many people are ignoring social distancing rules.

Kwon strongly appealed to the public who had just returned from vacation to take the test voluntarily before returning to work.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 2,223 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the country's total COVID-19 cases to 216,206 with 2,135 deaths.

Of the 52 million population, only 15.7 percent have been fully vaccinated, while 42.1 percent have received at least one dose.

The South Korean government targets 70 percent of the population to receive at least one dose of the vaccine by September.