(Yonhap)
South Korea on Monday reported 36 more new cases of COVID-19 variants, including 26 local infections, further escalating concerns over the spread of the more transmissible strains.
Of the additional cases, 33 people were confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus variant believed to have originated in Britain, followed by the South Africa variant with two and the Brazil variant with one, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The new variant cases were identified throughout the nation, including three cases from a sauna facility in Ulsan, 414 kilometers south of Seoul.
All of the locally transmitted patients were South Korean nationals.
The total number of confirmed variant cases here since October last year came to 249. So far, variants traced to Britain accounted for 211, followed by South Africa with 30 and Brazil with eight.
When "emerging" variants are counted, the number of mutated coronavirus cases totaled 324.
The country has been raising its guard against variant cases, as more people are expected to travel across the nation in spring.
"We plan to bolster our monitoring on the arrivals from foreign nations, along with the management of those under self-quarantine," KDCA chief Jeong Eun-kyeong said during a daily briefing.
Jeong added the country is currently in a critical juncture, considering that the third wave of the pandemic has not yet ended.
South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed in the 400s for the sixth day in a row Monday at 415 as cluster infections continued to pop up across the country. (Yonhap)