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South Korea recorded the first death of a Covid-19 patient with the Omicron variant last week, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) official Park Young-joon said in a briefing Monday.
The patient died on December 27 while staying at a nursing hospital in the southwestern city of Gwangju, Park said.
The patient, who was in their 90s, was fully vaccinated with two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but tested positive the day before, according to Park.
The authorities are investigating the Covid-19 variant profile of another patient in the facility who died on Wednesday after testing positive on Christmas, Park said.
The nursing hospital confirmed 21 Covid-19 cases since Christmas Eve, three of which were the Omicron variant, Park said.
The Omicron variant could soon be the dominant variant in the country as it accounted for 8.8% of the total coronavirus variants found during the fifth week of December, said KDCA official Lee Sang-won.
As of Monday, 1,318 Omicron variant cases have been found in South Korea, 703 of which were imported and 615 were locally transmitted, according to KDCA data.
The country reported 3,129 new Covid-19 cases from Sunday, increasing total confirmed cases to 642,207, according to KDCA data. There were 36 Covid-19 deaths recorded Sunday, raising the total to 5,730, according to the data.
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Source : cnn
