| On Feb. 24, a drone designed by Marine Drone Tech, a Busan venture firm, to deliver parcels gets ready to fly to a vessel in waters near the city which was restricted from docking at the city port due to concerns of spread of COVID-19. In five minutes, the drone flew two kilometers to a ship and successfully delivered medical supplementary kits. The firm is the first in South Korea to have acquired a business license in drone-dedicated delivery. Courtesy of Marine Drone Tech |
South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases fell below 400 on Sunday, partly due to fewer testing over the weekend, as the country launched its first mass vaccination campaign last week.
The country reported 356 more virus cases, including 334 local infections, raising the total caseload to 89,676, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Sunday's daily caseload marks a decline from 415 tallied the previous day. The figure was gradually increasing throughout last week with some ups and downs amid nationwide cluster infections.
There were eight more deaths from COVID-19, raising the total to 1,603.
On Friday, South Korea launched its first vaccination campaign starting with health care workers and patients at nursing facilities and hospitals across the nation with the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is deemed more convenient for mass inoculations as its storage temperature is 2 to 8 C, compared with the vaccine by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. that requires ultra-cold chain storage.
Medical workers at hospitals for virus patients started receiving the Pfizer vaccine Saturday as well. They are the first batch of vaccines acquired through the World Health Organization's global vaccine COVAX Facility. (Yonhap)