S. Korea’s total COVID-19 death toll tops 1,000 Updated: 2021-01-05 13:18:42 KST

With 26 more deaths reported Tuesday, COVID-19 has killed more than a thousand people in South Korea.
Officials have confirmed 715 new cases, returning to the triple digits after over a thousand cases the previous day.
672 of the new infections were locally transmitted.
Of them, Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi-do Province accounted for over 450.
Cluster infections at nursing homes continue to add to the caseload most of them affecting people in their 70s and over.
More than a thousand patients have been linked to the recent mass outbreak at the Dongbu Detention Center in Seoul.
During a briefing Tuesday, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun acknowledged the government’s sloppy response to that cluster infection and urged the Ministry of Justice to spare no effort containing the spread.

“We urge the Ministry of Justice to work closely with health authorities to take all-out emergency efforts until the situation stabilizes. A thorough inspection should happen at all correctional facilities to check for any blind spots.”

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the past week has seen a daily average of almost nine hundred infections.
The number of critically ill patients has increased by 35 to 386 and the overall caseload is closing in on 65-thousand.
Han Seong-woo, Arirang News.