SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases bounced back to nearly 100,000 on Tuesday as an omicron subvariant has spread fast amid a new wave of the virus resurgence.
The country reported 99,327 new COVID-19 infections, including 353 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,346,764, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
Tuesday’s count is more than double the previous day’s 35,883 and the largest number since 111,291 reported on April 20.
South Korea has seen a spike in the daily cases as the rapid spread of the omicron subvariant BA.5 is taking hold. The infection numbers have rebounded to five digits since early this month after mostly hovering at four digits in June.
The country suffered the worst omicron outbreak earlier this year, which sent the daily cases to the peak of over 620,000 in mid-March.
On Tuesday, South Korea added 17 deaths from COVID-19, with the death toll at 24,907. The number of critically ill patients came to 168, up by 24 from the previous day.
Source: Yonhap News Agency