S.Korea reports 3,128 COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated people, 3,455 more cases of variants in past week

SEOUL, August 31 : South Korea confirmed a total of 3,128 "breakthrough" COVID-19 infections, which refer to people who tested positive after a full vaccination. Meanwhile, the country reported 3,455 more cases of COVID-19 variants for the past week, the health authorities said Tuesday.

The new cases of COVID-19 variants brought the total number of such cases to 20,297.
Among the new cases found since Aug. 22, 327 were imported from overseas while the remaining 3,128 were locally transmitted, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The far higher number of local transmissions indicated the domestic spread of the variants. Of the new cases, 3,427 came from the Delta variant, 27 from Alpha and one from Beta.

Among the combined cases involving the variants, 16,881 stemmed from the Delta variant, 3,244 from Alpha, 150 from Beta and 22 from Gamma. The four variants are believed to be more transmissible than the original one.

The number of the fully vaccinated people who were infected with the COVID-19 was 3,128 as of Aug. 23, up from 2,599 a week earlier, the KDCA said Tuesday.
It equals to 40.5 in every 100,000 people who got fully vaccinated. As of Aug. 23, the number of the fully inoculated people was 7,728,157.

It is known that people can be protected from the virus two weeks after the full vaccination. The breakthrough case refers to people infected with the virus two weeks after the full inoculation.

Among the total, 631 were infected with the Delta variant, 26 with Alpha, one with Beta and one with Gamma.

The KDCA said the breakthrough infections can be found amid the rising number of vaccinations, noting that benefit from the inoculation remains large as it lowers the serious cases and death.

In the latest tally, South Korea reported 1,372 more cases of COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, lifting the total number of infections to 251,421. The daily caseload hovered above 1,000 for 56 straight days. Among the new cases, 39 were imported from overseas, raising the combined figure to 13,550.