New infections in 400s for 2nd day, upturn in virus curve worrisome

Seoul (South Korea), March 18: South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases remained in the 400s for a second straight day Thursday as cluster infections and untraceable cases continued to rise, raising concerns that the country may be on the verge of another resurgence in virus cases.
The country reported 445 more COVID-19 cases, including 427 local infections, raising the total caseload to 97,294, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The daily caseload was slightly down from 469 on Wednesday. Due to fewer testers over the weekend, the daily new virus cases were in the 300s on Monday and Tuesday.
In the greater Seoul area, home to more than half of the country's 52 million population, a spate of confirmed cases was reported among family members, private gatherings, workplaces, restaurants and sports facilities.
Out of overall confirmed cases, untraceable ones rose to more than 25 percent over the past two weeks, which means the infection route for 1 in 4 confirmed cases is unknown.
In addition, increased travel amid warm weather has emerged as another drag on efforts to curve the resurgence of the virus spread.
Enhanced infection prevention steps have been applied for the greater Seoul area. Health authorities plan to boost their monitoring of public facilities and foreign workers in the area till the end of the month.
A total of 641,331 people, including 18,733 the previous day, have been given COVID-19 vaccine shots.
AstraZeneca's vaccine accounted for 598,353, while Pfizer's took up 42,978.
Under the country's vaccination program starting Feb. 26, a total of 12 million people will be vaccinated by the end of June. Foreigners also will be inoculated under the program.
The country aims to achieve herd immunity by November.
A total of 9,405 cases of side effects after vaccinations have been reported, though 9,298 of them were mild symptoms.
A total of 16 deaths after vaccinations have been reported so far, according to the KCDA.
The authorities said earlier one suspected case of death from blood clots caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine has been reported, but the death is highly likely to be caused by other underlying diseases.
Health authorities said the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine rollout will continue despite reports of its side effects in Europe, as no evidence between the vaccine and blood clots in some recipients was found.
The country's second case of a blood clot after a vaccine shot case was reported, the authorities said. A man in his 20s was found to have blood clot after vaccination, they said.
Of the 427 locally transmitted cases announced early Thursday, 124 came from Seoul and 155 were reported from Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital. Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, reported 20 more cases.
The number of imported cases came to 18, up from 17 the previous day. They included four from the United States and two from Hungary.
The country added two more deaths, raising the total to 1,688. The number of patients with serious symptoms across the country reached 100, flat from the previous day.
The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries moved up 364 to 89,178.
Source: Yonhap