DAILY CASES REACH RECORD HIGH FIGURE

[Anchor Lead]

COVID-19 continues to rage in Korea. Daily cases have surpassed 1300, the highest number since the pandemic began. We begin today with COVID-19 updates.

[Pkg]

Korea has recorded 1,316 new daily COVID-19 cases as of midnight July 9th. Of those, 1236 are local and 80 are imported cases. Exceeding 1,300, the country’s record in terms of single-day coronavirus cases was broken in just one day. Seoul has reported 495 new cases, Gyeonggi-do Province — 396, Incheon — 72. More than 70 percent of infections are concentrated in the greater Seoul area. On Thursday, some 37,000 people received their first vaccine dose, brining the total number of those who have received at least one dose to 15.5 million. That's a little over 30 percent of the country's population. Some 74,000 people received their second dose on Thursday. The number of fully immunized people in the country now surpassed 5.6 million. That’s 11 percent of the country’s total population. Health authorities say the nation is entering the fourth wave of COVID-19. Last week, the average number of daily cases surged by 53 percent from the previous three weeks. The number of cases in the greater Seoul area spiked by 68 percent. Four out of ten local infections reported last week were Covid variants. The detection rate of the Delta variant has tripled in just one week. Experts say by next month it will likely become a dominant strain in Korea. Health authorities predict the number of daily cases to soar to 1400 by the end of this month. In the worst-case scenario it could surpass 2100, if the current situation continues.