S. Korea's has second-lowest number of COVID-19 cases per person in OECD

A doctor takes in a coronavirus patient at a hospital in Gwangju. (Yonhap)

Despite the recent surge in coronavirus infections, South Korea had the second-lowest number of cases relative to its population among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, government data showed.

According to the data, revealed in a daily briefing report by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in Korea was 111.26, which placed the country 36th out of the 37 OECD countries as of Monday. Korea had 1.58 deaths per 100,000 people.

New Zealand had the lowest number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people at 37.25, and it had 0.52 deaths per 100,000 people.

“Korea belongs with Japan, Australia and New Zealand in the group of countries with the lowest number of COVID-19 cases per population,” the KDCA said in a report.

The number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people was 112.73 in Australia and 171.25 in Japan.

Luxembourg had the highest number per 100,000 people at 7,629, followed by the Czech Republic at 6,326, the United States at 5,666, Belgium at 5,500, Slovenia at 5,437 and Switzerland at 4,955.

There are no signs of a slowdown in infections despite the tougher antivirus measures that have been in place for the past few weeks, with cases rising in connection with a detention center, nursing homes and senior citizens’ welfare facilities.

The country added 967 more COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 940 locally transmitted infections. The total number of cases to date rose to 60,740, according to the KDCA.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)

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