S.Korea's daily COVID-19 cases hit record high, surpassing 27,000 - China.org.cn

South Korea's daily number of COVID-19 cases hit a new record high, surpassing 27,000 for the first time amid the spread of the Omicron variant of the virus, the health authorities said Friday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the country recorded 27,443 new cases of COVID-19, raising the total number of infections to 934,656.

The daily caseload was up from 22,907 in the previous day, hovering above 20,000 for three straight days.

The recent resurgence was driven by cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, which became a dominant strain here.

Of the new cases, 6,139 were Seoul residents. The number of the newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 7,202 and 1,779, respectively.

The virus also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 12,163, or 44.6 percent of the total local transmissions.

Among the new cases, 160 were imported, lifting the total number to 25,967.