Daily COVID Cases Top 10,000 Again

Daily new COVID cases have risen above 10,000 again after lockdown was mostly lifted last month.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, new infections reached 10,463 early Wednesday, rising above 10,000 for the first time since June 9, but fell slightly to 9,595 on Thursday morning.

Daily cases peaked at 404,603 in the third week of March but dropped rapidly and have since remained stagnant.

COVID is surging again throughout the world. According to the World Health Organization, the average daily number of new cases per week stood at 4.29 million on June 20, up 20.3 percent on-week.

Health authorities said another COVID surge is likely this summer as vaccine immunity wanes and more people travel both at home and abroad.

"Infections could reach 150,000 to 200,000 per day this autumn," said Prof. Eom Joong-sik at Gachon University's Gil Medical Center. "The government currently plans to import COVID pills for 1 million people, but we need more and should give additional vaccine shots to the elderly in preparation for the worst."