New cases under 500 over fewer tests; inoculation drive to pick up pace

South Korea's daily new virus cases fell back to under 500 on Monday due to fewer tests over the weekend as health authorities push to ramp up the vaccination drive on the back of an increased vaccine supply.

The country reported 485 more COVID-19 cases, including 454 local infections, raising the total caseload to 144,637, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Monday's figure was sharply down from 556 cases on Sunday. But daily cases usually rise on Wednesday and Friday as more people get tested.

Daily caseloads have been going through some ups and downs between the 400s and 700s in recent months with no significant signs of a letup as cluster infections continue to be reported nationwide.

The daily average number of virus cases in the past week was 595.1, up from 583.7 reported in the last week of May.

The country added one more death, raising the death toll to 1,974. The fatality rate was 1.36 percent.

The country plans to vaccinate more than 13 million people by the end of this month and 36 million by September in order to achieve herd immunity in November.

A total of 7.59 million people, including 2,958 the previous day, have received their first shots of COVID-19 vaccines, since the country started its vaccination program on Feb. 26.

The KDCA said 2.27 million people have been fully vaccinated, accounting for 4.4 percent of the country's population.

More groups of people are scheduled to receive vaccines this week. Starting Monday, those aged 60-64 will get AstraZeneca vaccines, while military troops aged under 30 will be inoculated with Pfizer vaccines.

Beginning Thursday, the country will start inoculating people with 1 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine supplied by the US government. Health authorities plan to use them to vaccinate reserve forces, civil defense members, and others in charge of defense and foreign affairs.

A total of 34,447 cases of side effects after vaccinations have been reported, although 94.8 percent of them were mild symptoms.

So far, a total of 208 post-vaccination deaths have been reported, but the exact causes of the deaths remain unknown as causality could not be determined, health authorities said.

Of the 454 newly confirmed locally transmitted cases, 149 came from Seoul, 146 from Gyeonggi Province and 15 from Incheon, 40 kilometers west of the capital.

The southeastern city of Daegu, once the country's virus hotspot, reported 26 more cases.

Among virus clusters, the number of cases linked to a wholesale agriculture products market in southern Seoul rose by eight to 136.

A bar in Daegu added seven more cases to 316, while a karaoke venue in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, reported five more cases, raising its total to 31.

There were 31 additional imported cases, up 16 from the previous day, raising the total to 9,181.

Of the new imported cases, seven came from Indonesia, followed by Nepal with six and India with four.

The KDCA data showed the number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients was 152, up two from the previous day.

The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries was 134,861, up 599 from a day earlier, with 7,802 people being isolated for COVID-19 treatment, down 115 from a day ago. (Yonhap)