Delta Variant Cases Increase by 3,135 in One Week... 99.9% of Major Variant Infections

[Asia Economy Reporter Joselgina] As the spread of COVID-19 continues mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area, the number of confirmed cases of the more transmissible India-originated 'Delta variant' is also increasing daily.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 22nd, in the past week (September 12?18), the number of confirmed cases infected with the four major variants originating from the UK, South Africa, Brazil, and India was counted at 3,139 in South Korea.

Among them, the Delta variant accounted for 3,135 cases, making up 99.9% of all new variant infections. There were 3 cases of the UK-originated Alpha variant and 1 case of the Brazil-originated Gamma variant.

Looking at the infection routes of newly confirmed variant cases in the past week, 2,978 were domestic infections and 161 were imported cases. Among domestic infections, except for one Alpha variant case, the remaining 2,977 were all confirmed as Delta variant infections.

Among imported cases, 158 were infected with the Delta variant, confirmed among entrants from various countries including Indonesia, the United States, Uzbekistan, the Philippines, and Russia.

The detection rate of major variant viruses in domestic infection cases over the past week remains high at 98.2%. The detection rate of the Delta variant slightly decreased from 98.5% to 98.2%.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters is steadily increasing the number of analyses to strengthen variant virus surveillance. The variant virus analysis rate for the past week was 25.6% (24.8% domestic, 74.3% overseas).

Since December last year, the total number of confirmed cases of the four major variants in South Korea is 29,987. By type, there are 26,530 Delta variant cases, 3,281 Alpha variant cases, 150 Beta variant cases, and 26 Gamma variant cases.

Additionally, the Central Disease Control Headquarters disclosed the status of 'breakthrough infection suspected' cases after vaccination, conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

The cumulative suspected breakthrough infection cases are 5,880, which corresponds to 0.040% of the 14,611,702 fully vaccinated individuals in South Korea (as of September 12). By age group, the 30s had the highest incidence rate at 0.110%.

By vaccine type, the incidence rate among Janssen vaccine recipients was 0.161%, Pfizer vaccine recipients 0.034%, AstraZeneca vaccine recipients 0.028%, and Moderna vaccine recipients 0.024%. Among those who received heterologous vaccination (different vaccines for the first and second doses), the incidence rate was 0.024%.

Meanwhile, the average daily number of new COVID-19 cases in South Korea over the past week was 1,798.7, an increase of 4.3% compared to the previous week. In particular, the Seoul metropolitan area recorded a 12.2% increase, reaching the highest level. The COVID-19 reproduction number nationwide was 1.03.