Variant cases top 6,000, delta variant infections piling up amid 4th wave of pandemic

South Korea has confirmed 1,412 more cases of four major contagious variants of the new coronavirus over the past week, including 1,242 cases of the highly transmissible delta variant, health authorities said Tuesday.

The caseload of such infections reached 6,016 here, with the number of delta cases first reported in India tallied at 2,983, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Of the newly confirmed variant cases over the cited period, there were 1,233 local infections and 179 imported cases, the KDCA said.

Health authorities said the country will witness more cases of the highly transmissible delta variant down the road.

The rate of variant cases detected through gene analysis came to 54.8 percent over the past week, with the rate for the delta variant at 48 percent, the KDCA said

The steady rise in variant cases poses a threat to the country's virus battle currently dogged by a spike in new cases and the slowdown of its inoculation campaign.

On Tuesday, the country added 1,365 COVID-19 cases, including 1,276 local infections, raising the total caseload to 191,531, the KDCA said.

A total of 17.51 million people, or 34.1 percent of the country's population, have received their first shots of COVID-19 vaccines, and 6.91 million people have been fully vaccinated, the KDCA said.

To block the inflow of the new emerging strain from India, entrants from the country are mandatorily quarantined at state facilities for seven days before being put under self-quarantine depending on the results of virus tests. (Yonhap)