Daily COVID Cases Surge over 70,000 Overnight

New COVID cases shot up to over 70,000 in Korea as new infectious subvariants take hold.

New infections stood at 73,582 as of Tuesday morning, up nearly 50,000 from the previous day and the most in about three months.

Cases have been doubling every week over the past four weeks.

The same day a new concerted vaccination drive targeting the over-50s began amid widespread reluctance to have a second booster shot.

The government has shifted its focus to preventing high-risk groups from becoming severely ill or dying as the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant begins to spread.

Health authorities warned that numbers could rise to 150,000 to 200,000 cases a day in the second half of this year, while experts put the number at up to 300,000.

But new deaths and severe illness remain low at 12 and 91.