S.Korea's reported COVID-19 cases top 10,000
Seoul/Xinhua/UNI: South Korea's reported cases of the COVID-19 topped 10,000 as of midnight Friday local time as 86 more cases were confirmed for the past 24 hours.
The number of infections here totaled 10,062, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). The KCDC has updated the data once a day.
Five more deaths were confirmed, raising the death toll to 174. The total fatality rate came in at 1.73 percent, while the rate for those in their 80s or higher soared to 18.86 percent.
A total of 193 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making fully recovery, pulling up the combined number to 6,021.
The caseload surpassed 10,000 in 74 days since the first case was reported here on Jan. 20.
The daily caseload has stayed around 100 for the past weeks, but small cluster infections and imported cases were still found.
The number of imported cases was 508 in the past two weeks, according to the health authorities. About 92 percent of the total was entrants from overseas, and the remaining 8 percent was those who were infected by the entrants.
Except for the first 31 cases, all the infections have been reported since Feb. 19.
The country has raised its four-tier virus alert to the highest "red" level.
Small cluster infections were still found in Daegu, Seoul and Gyeonggi province. Of the new cases, 22 were detected at airports.
The total number of infections in Daegu, about 300 km southeast of Seoul, and its surrounding North Gyeongsang province increased to 6,734 and 1,309 respectively. It accounted for over 80 percent of the total.
The numbers in Seoul and its adjacent Gyeonggi province came to 506 and 539 each.
Daegu became the epicenter of the viral spread here as the biggest cluster of infections was found in the metropolis with a 2.5 million population. Daegu has been designated by the government as a "special disaster zone."
The Daegu cluster was closely linked to the church services of a homegrown minor religious sect, called Sincheonji, in Daegu. Members of the sect are known to sit on the floor closely side by side during church services.
Since Jan. 3, South Korea has tested more than 443,000 people, among whom 414,303 tested negative for the virus and 18,908 were being checked.
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