Military reports 273 more COVID-19 cases

All News 14:30 February 05, 2022

SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's military on Saturday reported 273 additional COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload among its domestic personnel to 5,762.

The new cases included 165 from the Army, 62 from the Air Force, and 12 from the Navy.

Currently, 1,604 military personnel are under treatment.

On Friday, the defense ministry said it plans to bolster antivirus measures at boot camps amid a growing number of COVID-19 infections among service members.

Under the new rules, all trainees will receive both rapid antigen tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on their first day at boot camps. Previously, they took only PCR tests.

Boot camps will extend the precautionary isolation period from the current seven days to a maximum of 14 days and increase monthly supplies of masks from 20 per person to 30, the ministry said.

It will also procure more COVID-19 treatment pills for troops deployed overseas.

On Thursday, the government adopted a new testing regime, in which only those who tested positive in rapid antigen tests will receive PCR tests in principle.

South Korea's daily virus cases exceeded 30,000 for the first time to hit another all-time high of over 36,000 on Saturday amid fast spread of the omicron variant after a holiday season.

The country reported 36,362 new COVID-19 infections, including 36,162 local cases, raising the total to 971,018, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).