S.Korea's daily COVID-19 cases hit new record high at 4,116

SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's daily number of COVID-19 cases hit a new record high as the government eased anti-virus measures on the higher full vaccination rate, the health authorities said Wednesday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the country reported 4,116 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 425,065.

It marked the highest daily caseload since the country's first case was found on Jan. 20 last year. The previous high was 3,292 recorded six days earlier.

The government alleviated anti-virus measures this month as the full inoculation rate topped 70 percent of the total population, contributing to the surge in infection cases.

The recent resurgence was attributable to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Of the new cases, 1,730 were Seoul residents. The numbers of the newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon were 1,176 and 219 respectively.

The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 963, or 23.6 percent of the total local transmission.

Twenty-eight cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 15,574.

The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 586, up 37 from the previous day.

Thirty-five more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 3,363. The total fatality rate was 0.79 percent.

The country has administered COVID-19 vaccines to 42,320,422 people, or 82.4 percent of the total population.

The number of the fully vaccinated people was 40,631,958, or 79.1 percent of the population, while 2,102,455 people received booster shots.