Seoul's daily COVID-19 infection cases exceed 5,000 for 1st time

The daily COVID-19 tally in Seoul has surpassed 5,000 for the first time, setting an all-time high for the second consecutive day, officials said Thursday.

The Seoul city government reported 5,218 new cases Wednesday, up 1,009 from the previous high of 4,209 tallied the previous day.

The latest tally was 1,789 higher than 3,429 recorded a week ago.

Of the total, only 27 were cases of travelers from abroad.

The proportion of omicron variant among new weekly infections rose to 60.5 percent last week from 25.6 percent tallied the previous week, according to the city government.

During the Lunar New Year holiday that ran from Saturday through Wednesday, the number of daily COVID-19 tests almost halved from Friday's tally of 150,000, but the daily virus figure continued to increase except on Monday.

The capital will likely see a further jump in daily virus cases as the number of virus tests, excluding self-tests, surged back to over 130,000 on Wednesday.

It usually takes a day for virus test results to come out.

Following the reintroduction of strict social distancing rules in December, Seoul's daily virus tally fell to 700s in mid-January but jumped back to over 3,000 on Jan. 25, exceeding 4,000 for the first time on Friday.

The accumulated tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the capital came to 290,883, with the death toll reaching 2,191. (Yonhap)