Seoul: The Republic of Korea has seen a significant increase in the level of the COVID-19 virus in its wastewater, indicating a surge in infections during the summer vacation season. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported on Sunday that the concentration of the virus at local sewage treatment plants nearly doubled within a week, reaching 47,640 copies per milliliter during the second week of August. This is a sharp rise from the 24,602 copies per milliliter recorded the previous week.

This data is part of the Korea Wastewater Surveillance Programme, which the KDCA has been running since April 2022 to monitor the presence of the COVID-19 virus in communities. The program analyzes water treated by 84 wastewater plants across the country.

The KDCA stated that this surge in wastewater virus levels reflects a recent increase in COVID-19 infections, which has been particularly noticeable during the summer holidays.

In addition to the rise in wastewater virus levels, the number of newly hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Korea also saw a significant increase, reaching 1,359 during the second week of August, up from 878 the previous week.