SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korea reported 3,460 more cases of COVID-19 variants for the past week, bringing the total number of such cases to 26,848, the health authorities said Wednesday.
Among the new cases found since Sept. 5, 200 were imported from overseas while the remaining 3,260 were locally transmitted, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The far higher number of local transmissions indicated the domestic spread of the variants.
Of the new cases, 3,444 came from the Delta variant, and 16 from Alpha.
Among the combined cases involving the variants, 23,395 stemmed from the Delta variant, 3,278 from Alpha, 150 from Beta and 25 from Gamma. The four variants are believed to be more transmissible than the original one.
Meanwhile, the country confirmed a total of 4,731 "breakthrough" COVID-19 infections, which refer to people who tested positive after a full vaccination as of Sept. 6. It was up from 3,855 a week earlier.
It equals 40.9 in every 100,000 people who got fully vaccinated. As of Sept. 6, the number of fully inoculated people was 11,577,080.
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, 1,114 were infected with the Delta variant, 30 with Alpha, one with Beta and two with Gamma.
In the latest tally, South Korea reported 2,080 more cases of COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, lifting the total number of infections to 277,989. The daily caseload hovered above 1,000 for 71 straight days.
Among the new cases, 23 were imported from overseas, raising the combined figure to 14,027. Enditem
