SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea confirmed a total of 2,599 "breakthrough" COVID-19 infections, which refer to people who tested positive after a full vaccination, the health authorities said Tuesday.
The number of fully vaccinated people who were infected with the COVID-19 was 2,599 as of Aug. 18, up from 2,111 a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
It equals 35.1 in every 100,000 people who got fully vaccinated. As of Aug. 18, the number of fully inoculated people was 7,407,767.
It is known that people can be protected from the virus two weeks after the full vaccination. The breakthrough case refers to people infected with the virus two weeks after the full inoculation.
Among the total, 498 were infected with the Delta variant, 26 with Alpha, one with Beta and one with Gamma.
The KDCA said the breakthrough infections can be found amid the rising number of vaccinations, noting that benefit from the inoculation remains large as it lowers the serious cases and death.
In the latest tally, South Korea reported 1,509 more cases of COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, lifting the total number of infections to 239,287. The daily caseload hovered above 1,000 for 49 straight days. Enditem
