South Korea says Delta variant rapidly spreading in country

ANKARA

A South Korean health official warned on Monday that Delta, the latest alarming variant of COVID-19, is rapidly spreading across the country.

According to Son Young-rae, the variant, which was first identified in India, "currently accounts for about 7% of new coronavirus cases." The figure is more than 1% two months ago, he told the local TBS radio.

New cases in the Southeast Asian country have remained over 700 for the past four days.

With 711 new infections and two related fatalities in the last 24 hours, the overall caseload has reached 160,795, including 2,028 virus-linked deaths.

So far 15.3 million people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while more than 5.3 million people have been fully vaccinated.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid