63 new COVID cases as less tested over holidays

Sixty-three new COVID-19 cases were reported on Friday as the number of COVID tests conducted almost halved during the Chuseok holidays.

The daily number of new cases has been in double digits for four days in a row since Sep. 25, spiked to 113 on Wednesday, and has been in double digits for the past two days.

This is partly because the number of tests conducted fell by nearly half from 9,955 on Tuesday to 5,436 on Wednesday and 5,342 on Thursday.

Of the 63 new cases reported on Friday, 32 came from the Seoul metropolitan area, marking the lowest number of new cases in the region since it went over 100 on Aug. 13 with cluster infections at churches.

New cases were added to cluster infections at Dana Hospital (33 cases so far) in Dobong-gu, Seoul; Pyeonggang Clinic (10 cases so far) in Busan; Yemaru Daycare Center in Dobong-gu (32 cases so far); Sindorim metro station (11 cases so far); and a health food promotional seminar (21 cases) in Busan.

Ten were imported cases, including two from the Philippines, and one each from Kyrgystan, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Indonesia, Poland, Britain and Belgium.

By nationality, six were South Koreans.

One more person died due to the coronavirus, bringing the country’s COVID-19 death toll to 416 and the fatality rate to 1.74 percent.

The number of patients in severe or chronic conditions remained at 107.

The aggregate number of COVID-19 cases confirmed so far stood at 23,952.

Over 2.33 million people have been tested for COVID-19 in Korea so far, and nearly 2.29 million of them were tested negative, and the remaining 19,995 are awaiting test results.

Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)