S.Korea confirms first 2 deaths linked to Omicron variant

SEOUL - South Korea on Monday confirmed its first two deaths linked to the Omicron COVID-19 variant amid rising worry about the highly transmissible variant.

Two people in their 90s, who had been hospitalized at a nursing hospital in Gwangju, about 330 km south of Seoul, posthumously tested positive for the variant, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The first deceased in connection with the Omicron variant passed away on Dec 27, before being confirmed to have been infected with the variant on Dec 30.

The second case was a patient who died on Dec 29. It has been categorized as an epidemiologically relevant case, which had yet to reach a final conclusion.

All the deceased were connected to a cluster infection at the nursing hospital, where 21 people tested positive for COVID-19.

The first patient completed the administration of two vaccine doses in late October, while the second patient was fully inoculated in May.

In the latest tally, the country reported 3,129 more cases of COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, lifting the total number of infections to 642,207. The daily caseload hovered below 4,000 for two days.

The number of the Omicron variant infections was 1,318 so far, including 703 imported cases and 615 domestic transmissions, up 111 from the prior day.