S. Korea reports Delta variant cases in Seoul, 5 other administrative regions

Posted on : 2021-06-29 16:56 KST Modified on : 2021-06-29 16:56 KST
The major virus variants (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta) represented 30.5% of community cases over the past week
A health worker administers a COVID-19 test on a man at a temporary screening center set up in front of Seoul Station on Monday. (Yonhap News)
A health worker administers a COVID-19 test on a man at a temporary screening center set up in front of Seoul Station on Monday. (Yonhap News)

Over the past week, the Delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 has turned up in six administrative regions in South Korea. While Delta doesn’t yet seem to be spreading at a rate that could affect the total number of confirmed cases, the variant is being found in more and more parts of the country.

According to figures on the main virus variants released by Korea’s Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) on Monday, the Delta variant was detected in 21 of 642 cases of local transmission that were subjected to genomic analysis over the past week (June 20-26).

In effect, around 3.3% of people infected at the community level have the Delta variant. That’s up slightly from the Delta infection rate (2.7%, 19 cases) among cases of local transmission in the previous week (June 13-19).

Particularly striking is that the Delta infections reported last week occurred across a wide swath of the country: Seoul, Daegu, Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Chungcheong Province, and South Jeolla province. Significantly, One patient in Daegu and one in Chungcheong Province were isolated cases not tied to an infection cluster.

Separately from this, Delta is being found more frequently in infection clusters. In addition to previous reported clusters — including the quarantine center at Incheon International Airport, a family and school in Incheon’s Namdong District, and a clinic in Hampyeong County, South Jeolla Province — Delta also turned up last week at a meeting of friends in Gyeonggi Province (four total cases), a family trip in Gyeonggi Province (five cases), a meeting of friends in the greater Seoul area (12 cases), and a restaurant in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province (16 cases).

“The [Delta variant’s] range of transmission now includes more regions than before. We’re tracking [each case we’ve detected] while watching carefully to see how wide the range of transmission is,” said Park Yeong-jun, head of epidemiological research at the CDCH.

The detection rate of the major virus variants (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta) in community transmission over the past week was 30.5% (196 of 642 cases analyzed), down slightly from 33.2% the previous week.

Alpha accounted for 175 of those 196 cases and Delta for 21 of them. The Beta and Gamma variants didn’t turn up in the tests.

By Choi Ha-yan, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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