SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea registered a total of 212,459 breakthrough COVID-19 infections, which refer to the vaccinated people who were infected with the virus, the health authorities said Monday.
The number of those who tested positive for COVID-19 after receiving two vaccine doses came in at 212,459 as of Jan. 16, up from 199,749 a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
It accounted for 0.502 percent of the fully vaccinated people that reached 42,317,353.
It is known that people can be protected from the virus two weeks after the full vaccination.
Among the total breakthrough cases, the number of critically ill patients was 2,591. The death toll stood at 1,428.
The number of those who were infected with COVID-19 after receiving booster shots was 11,780 on Jan. 16, taking up 0.064 percent of the total 18,346,229 who got the booster jabs.
The number of critically ill patients who received booster shots was 76, and the death toll came to 34.
In the latest tally, the country reported 7,513 more cases of COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, lifting the total number of infections to 741,413.
The daily caseload stayed above 7,000 for three straight days amid the spread of the Omicron variant. ■