Severe COVID Cases on the Rise

Some 460 people were severely ill with coronavirus as of Wednesday, the most since late August.

Last week 365 seriously ill patients a day were hospitalized up 9.6 percent from the previous week, and 126 died, up 48.2 percent.

Authorities are mostly worried about breakthrough infections and fading vaccine immunity. Some 48.1 percent of people who tested positive in the past two weeks and 38.2 percent of seriously ill patients had been fully vaccinated.

Vice Health Minister Ryu Geun-hyuk told reporters, "We're going to secure more hospital beds and medical personnel as soon as possible to prepare for an increase in the number of seriously ill patients."

"We're also trying to speed up the shipment of COVID pills originally scheduled for February," he added. Korea has so far bought enough courses for 400,000 people but has signed an option to buy more if necessary.

On Wednesday morning the daily tally of new infections stood at 2,425.