Daily virus cases above 1,000 for 4th day, concerns rise over hospital capacity

The country added 1,053 more COVID-19 cases, including 1,029 local infections, raising the total caseload to 48,570, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Yonhap reports.

It is the first time that the daily number has stayed above 1,000 for four straight days. After reaching a record high of 1,078 on Wednesday, the daily caseload inched down to 1,014 the following day and then bounced back to 1,062 on Friday.

Cluster infections have been breaking out across the country, with senior care hospitals, religious facilities and offices hit particularly hard.

Of the locally transmitted cases, more than 70 percent were from the greater Seoul area, which is home to around half of the country's population of more than 50 million.

The capital city of Seoul reported 384 new cases Saturday, and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province and the western city of Incheon had 278 and 46 additional patients, respectively.

The North Chungcheong Province, central South Korea, logged 103 new patients, marking the highest daily figure from municipalities and provinces outside the capital region since mid-March.

The continued surge in new cases has caused the shortage in hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.

In Seoul alone, around 580 patients were waiting to be admitted to hospitals as of Friday, according to the municipal government.

South Korea has 573 beds for seriously ill patients across the nation, but only 48 of them, or 8.4 percent, were unoccupied as of Friday.

So far this month, six patients have died of the disease while waiting to be admitted to hospitals, and the figure is feared to grow as the number of critically ill patients has been rising faster than before.

The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients came to 275 Saturday, up 29 from the previous day.

The KDCA reported 14 additional deaths, raising the total to 659.