New virus cases back over 700 as fourth wave of pandemic looms

Seoul (South Korea), April 14: South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases rebounded to over 700 on Wednesday, the most in over three months, as cluster infections across the country continued to pop up sparking concerns over another wave of the pandemic.
The country reported 731 more COVID-19 cases, including 714 local infections, raising the total caseload to 111,419, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
Wednesday's daily caseload was the highest since Jan. 7, when 869 new cases were confirmed. The number of new cases remained in the 500s over the last two days due largely to fewer tests conducted over the weekend.
The country added seven more deaths, raising the total to 1,782.
Health authorities have expressed concerns over a fourth wave of the pandemic in spring as people let their guard down and increase activities.
They warned of stronger restrictions on multiuse facilities if the virus transmissions show no signs of letup.
The number of locally transmitted cases surpassed 600 over the past week for the first time in three months, and the proportion of untraceable virus cases stood at 28.2 percent during the period, the KDCA said.
Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol vowed to expand preemptive testing to detect patients at an early stage and explore ways to effectively use self-testing kits to further step up the testing capacity.
The Seoul metropolitan government is pushing to introduce rapid COVID-19 self-testing kits in schools, universities and religious facilities as part of its new campaign to safely reopen the city.
Under new Mayor Oh Se-hoon, the city government has been working on a coronavirus response scheme tailored to the needs of individual businesses, raising concerns about potential inconsistencies with the policies of the central government.
Since the country started its vaccination program on Feb. 26, a total of 1,239,065 people have been given COVID-19 vaccine shots, including 43,489 the previous day.
AstraZeneca's vaccine has been given to 936,448 people, while 302,618 received that of Pfizer.
The KDCA said 60,567 people have received two doses.
A total of 11,799 cases of side effects after vaccinations have been reported, up 64 from a day earlier, but 98.4 percent were mild symptoms, including muscle pain and fever.
Another death after vaccinations was reported, raising the total to 49, according to the KDCA. Authorities, however, said most cases were not related to the vaccination.
South Korea plans to vaccinate 12 million people by the end of June, with a goal of achieving herd immunity by November.
Health authorities resumed administering AstraZeneca vaccines to eligible recipients aged over 30 on Monday, days after putting the program on hold amid growing concerns over its safety.
With only two types of vaccines currently available here, the health ministry said it expects to secure Novavax vaccines as early as June, and 20 million doses will be ready by the third quarter. Novavax vaccines require two shots for immunization.
Of the newly confirmed locally transmitted cases, 245 came from Seoul, with Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital city accounting for 238.
The southeastern port city of Busan reported 48 new cases.
There were 17 additional imported cases, adding three from the previous day.
The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients was 100, down one from Tuesday
The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries was 101,938, up 651 from a day earlier.
Source: Yonhap