S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases above 100,000 for 5th day

SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's new COVID-19 cases remained over 100,000 for the fifth straight day Saturday as the country battles a new wave of infections fueled by a highly infectious omicron subvariant.

The country added 110,666 new COVID-19 infections, including 573 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 20,383,621, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Saturday's figure is slightly down from 112,901 Friday but jumped 1.35 times from a week earlier. Daily infection cases have been on the rise in recent weeks amid the spread of the highly contagious omicron subvariant BA.5.

The number of deaths caused by COVID-19 was 45, raising the death toll to 25,236. The fatality rate was 0.12 percent, the KDCA said. The number of seriously ill patients stood at 313, down seven from the previous day.

South Korea, with a population of 51.6 million, reached the grim milestone of 20 million coronavirus infections Wednesday, 2 1/2 years after its first COVID-19 case was reported Jan. 20, 2020.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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