South Korea reports record Covid cases
South Korea has reported a record of more than 600,000 coronavirus cases, with authorities saying the country was near the peak of an Omicron-fuelled infection wave.
According to WHO data, South Korea leads the world in newly reported cases in the last seven days with 2,417,174 infections, followed by Vietnam with 1,776,045.
The 621,328 case tally recorded today is South Korea's highest daily figure since the pandemic began. But critical cases and deaths remain comparatively low in the country of around 52 million where the majority of adults are fully vaccinated and have received a booster shot, official data shows. "We have been preparing for an increase in the number of patients since Omicron became dominant," Lee Sang-won, a senior official at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
But even the government's modelling did not anticipate this many, he said. "The number is much greater than what was expected," he said.
United States
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Cases: 46 252 513
Deaths: 750 423
Recovered: 0
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India
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Cases: 34 321 025
Deaths: 459 652
Recovered: 0
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Brazil
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Cases: 21 835 785
Deaths: 608 235
Recovered: 0
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United Kingdom
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Cases: 9 215 683
Deaths: 141 607
Recovered: 0
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Russia
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Cases: 8 494 589
Deaths: 237 619
Recovered: 0
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