(LEAD) S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases soar to over 115,000

All News 11:39 August 30, 2022

(ATTN: ADDS more details from regular press briefing; CHANGES photo; UPDATES last para with more info)

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's new COVID-19 cases rebounded to over 115,000 Tuesday after declining for a few days, due largely to fewer tests, as the virus trend continues at a steady pace.

The country reported 115,638 new COVID-19 infections, including 380 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 23,142,479, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Tuesday's tally is a jump from the previous day's 43,142, but is in the range of 100,000-150,000 reported last week, except for the weekend and Mondays when the infection numbers tend to dip as fewer people take diagnostic tests.

"We believe that the latest virus wave passed its peak in the third week of this month and expect to see a gradual slowdown of the omicron spread for some time," a KDCA official said in a regular press briefing.

On a weekly basis, the infection caseload was down 13.8 percent last week from the previous week, at a daily average of 110,000, the KDCA said. Out of every 100 patients, about seven to eight cases were reinfections, representing about 1.38 percent of the entire caseload.

The country added 71 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, putting the death toll at 26,689, the KDCA said. The fatality rate stood at 0.12 percent.

The number of critically ill patients remained high at 591, slightly down from the four-month high of 597 reported Monday.

Experts have predicted the latest new wave would not be as serious as the last time with the daily peak of over 620,000 cases, but called for not lowering the vigilance against cases involving high-risk groups with underlying diseases and the elderly.

Amid the moderate virus trend, health authorities are expected to announce as early as Wednesday whether to remove the mandatory pre-travel COVID-19 test requirement for inbound travelers to South Korea, while maintaining the mandate to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in the first 24 hours of arrival.