Nearly half of Seoul's recent COVID-19 cases breakthrough infections: city govt.

Nearly half of all recent COVID-19 cases in Seoul were breakthrough infections, a Seoul city official said Tuesday.

"Of the 646 new cases confirmed in Seoul on Sunday, 49.4 percent, or 319 cases, were breakthrough cases," Park Yoo-mi, a disease control official at the Seoul metropolitan government, said in a briefing.

"The rate of breakthrough infections in Seoul is higher than the nationwide average," she noted.

According to the city government, Seoul has recorded 12,663 breakthrough infections so far.

Of them, 5,164 cases involved those who were inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, 4,818 with the Pfizer vaccine and 2,030 with the Janssen vaccine. The rest received Moderna or other kinds of COVID-19 vaccines.

The official advised senior citizens and those with underlying diseases, for whom a vaccine booster shot is currently available, to receive the additional dose.

As of Tuesday, 76.7 percent, or about 7.28 million, of all residents in Seoul have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the city government said. (Yonhap)