Published : Sept. 24, 2021 - 11:13
People receive coronavirus tests at a screening clinic in Seoul on Friday. (Yonhap)
Daily coronavirus cases in Seoul topped 900 for the first time in the wake of the Chuseok holiday, health authorities said Friday.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said 907 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed during the 24 hours before midnight. Of them, 903 were local infections and four were imported cases.
The number is far higher than the city's previous record high of 808 cases, which was set on Sept. 14.
The total caseload reached 94,728 in the capital, with a population of more than 9.58 million.
New cases across the country also reached an all-time high of 2,434, the KDCA reported.
The spike came after millions of people traveled during Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, which ran from Monday to Wednesday.
The surge is largely attributable to a sharp increase in the number of virus tests Wednesday.
A total of 81,599 people underwent tests on the last day of the holiday season, compared with 30,000-50,000 per day from Saturday to Tuesday, the KDCA said.
The test positivity rate during the past week ending Thursday was 1.3 percent.
The greater Seoul area, which also includes neighboring Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, accounted for 72.3 percent of the newly confirmed domestic cases announced Friday. The metropolitan area is home to half of the nation's 52 million population. (Yonhap)