Over 30 million South Koreans have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine as of Sunday, health authorities said, as the vaccine rollout is gaining speed among the general public.

Slightly more than 30 million people have been inoculated with their first vaccine shots as of 11:15 a.m., accounting for around 58 percent of the country's 52 million population, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

A total of 17.7 million, or 34.6 percent of the total population, have been fully vaccinated since the inoculations began on Feb. 26, the KDCA said.

The country's inoculations topped the 10 million mark on June 10, breached 20 million on Aug. 3, and the vaccination rate has been rising as adults aged between 18 and 49 have started getting their shots since Aug. 26.

The government aims to vaccinate at least 36 million, or 70 percent of the total, by the Chuseok holiday, which falls on Sept. 20-22 this year, under the goal of creating herd immunity by November. 

On Sunday, the country added 1,490 more COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload to 260,403, according to the KDCA.

As daily cases have stayed above 1,000 for the last two months amid the fast rise of the more transmissible delta variant, health authorities extended the toughest Level 4 distancing measures in the Seoul metropolitan area through Oct. 3. (Yonhap)