South Korea added 719 cases of Delta strain in the past week

China News Service, July 19, according to Korean media reports, according to South Korea’s Central Anti-epidemic Measures Headquarters on the 19th, among the local COVID-19 cases in the past seven days, 1,001 cases were related to the COVID-19 variants found in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, and India. . Among them, 719 infected cases were related to the Delta strain found in India, accounting for 71.8% of the total number of variant cases.



July 12, 2021 local time, Seoul, South Korea. Starting from the same day, the Korean metropolitan area implemented the fourth level of the highest epidemic prevention response level. The streets of Myeongdong in Seoul are depressed and there are few customers. Image source: Visual China

reported that in the past seven days, sequencing of the genomes of samples from local cases infected with viruses in South Korea showed that the detection rate of mutant strains was 47.1%, which was 10.2 percentage points higher than the previous week. The detection rate of variant strains in local cases remained below 40% between the third week of June and the first week of July, but it suddenly increased last week. The detection rate of Delta strains rose from 23.3% in the previous week to 33.9% last week, an increase of 10.6 percentage points.

South Korea’s Central Anti-epidemic Countermeasures Headquarters reported on the 19th that as of 0:00 on the same day, South Korea had 1,252 new confirmed cases of new crowns compared to 0:00 the previous day, and the total number of confirmed cases exceeded 179,000. One new death was added that day, and the total number of deaths reached 2,058. With the arrival of the hot summer season, the epidemic in non-capital regions has become more and more intense, making the epidemic prevention department nervous.

In particular, the epidemic situation in coastal cities on the east coast of South Korea has become increasingly severe. The Gangneung City Government has raised the epidemic prevention response level to the same highest level as the capital area at 0:00 local time on the 19th, and is discussing high-strength prevention and control plans such as closing beaches at night.

On the other hand, as of 0:00 on the same day, the occupancy rate of hospital beds in Gangwon Province was as high as 68.8%. In order to solve the problem of shortage of beds, major hospitals in the province are actively expanding their beds, and the government also plans to build new life treatment centers to alleviate urgent needs.