NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

With infections surging in non-capital areas, the fourth wave of COVID-19 is spreading across the nation. Health Minister Kwon Deok-chul said Sunday the nation added nearly 1,730 new cases over the weekend and infections in non-capital regions are continuing to increase, indicating that the fourth wave is raging across the nation, He added that compared to the times before the fourth wave, the number of seriously ill patients has doubled, placing heavier strain on medical workers. Kwon said maintaining tougher social-distancing rules is an inevitable option to curb the surge.
An accumulated 20.9 million people have received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccines. A COVID-19 vaccination taskforce said that some 27,500 more people received the first dose of the two-shot regimen as of midnight on Monday. The number of fully vaccinated people increased by about 2,200 to top 7.72 million. This means that 40.8 percent of the nation’s population have received the first shot and 15 percent are fully vaccinated.