S Korea reports 356 new COVID-19 cases, 89,676 in total

South Korea reported 356 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Saturday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 89,676.

The daily caseload was down from 415 in the previous day, but it hovered above 100 since Nov. 8 owing to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

Of the new cases, 117 were Seoul residents and 139 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Twenty-two cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 7,046.

Eight more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,603. The total fatality rate stood at 1.79 percent.

A total of 364 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 80,697. The total recovery rate was 89.99 percent.

The country tested more than 6.64 million people, among whom 6,486,441 tested negative for the virus and 72,889 are being checked.

Since the mass vaccination campaign was launched on Feb. 26, the country administered the first shots of COVID-19 vaccines to a total of 20,322 people. (/Xinhua)

( With inputs from ANI )