After China, now South Korea faces severe Covid outbreak

After China, now South Korea is facing the worst Covid outbreak as the country recorded over 4,00,000 infection cases on Wednesday. As per updates from the state media, South Korea reported 4,00,741 new daily Covid cases, the highest since the country reported its first Covid-19 case in January last year. Most of these new COVID cases were said to be locally transmitted.

With the fresh COVID cases, South Korea's overall caseload has now gone up to to 7,629,275, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

South Korea had on Tuesday recorded the deadliest day of the pandemic with 293 deaths reported in 24 hours, news agency Associated Press reported.

On the other hand, China is also facing its worst Covid-19 outbreak, forcing millions to go under lockdown. China recorded 3,290 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, including 11 severe cases.

However, China, where the first virus case emerged in 2019, has not officially reported any Covid death for more than a year, news agency AFP reported.

In an effort to contain the spread of the virus, China has decided to free up hospital beds as officials on Wednesday reported thousands of new cases from an Omicron-led coronavirus outbreak.

The surge in Covid cases has put around 17.5 million residents of the southern tech hub of Shenzhen under lockdown. Apart from this city, the COVID restrictions have also been imposed in Shanghai and other areas.