Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has reported that 107,894 new COVID-19 infections have been reported in South Korea over the past 24 hours, and 34 deaths have been reported. According to Yonhap News Agency, KDCA has announced that the number of infections has risen to 20,160,154, while the number of deaths has risen to 25,144.
South Korea recorded its highest daily number of COVID-19 infections in 110 days on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections to over 20 million. According to KDCA, 119,922 newly detected COVID-19 cases were reported in the past 24 hours. As a result of the rapid spread of the new COVID-19 subvariant, it was the highest daily figure in 110 days since mid-April.
The recent resurgence has raised concerns that infections among the elderly have increased sharply. Three weeks earlier, 14,215 infected people aged 60 or older were recorded, compared with 94,752 this week. There are now 284 people infected who are in a serious condition, up from 177 last week and 96 two weeks ago. In total, 48.2 percent of the serious cases involved people over the age of 80. This includes 23.6 percent of those over the age of 70, and 10.9 percent of those over the age of 60.
The Commissioner of the KDCA, Peck Kyong-ran, told the parliamentary committee that re-introducing social distancing rules would be considered only when the fatality rate increases to around 0.8 percent or the number of beds for the infected people is about to run out.