S.Korea reports 1,600 more COVID-19 cases, 173,511 in total

SEOUL, July 15:  South Korea reported 1,600 more cases of the COVID-19 as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 173,511.

The daily caseload was slightly down from the record high of 1,615 tallied in the previous day, but it hovered above 1,000 for the ninth consecutive day. The daily average caseload for the past week soared to 1,355.

The recent resurgence was attributable to cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

Of the new cases, 518 were Seoul residents and 491 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Forty-five cases were imported, lifting the combined figure to 10,733. Two more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 2,050. The total fatality rate stood at 1.18 percent.

A total of 1,018 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 156,509. The total recovery rate was 90.20 percent.

The country has tested over 11.06 million people, among whom 10,682,466 tested negative for the virus and 204,479 are being checked.

Since the mass vaccination was launched on Feb. 26, the country has administered COVID-19 vaccines to a total of 15,836,992 people with 6,183,732 fully vaccinated.