SEOUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korea reported 68,632 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Thursday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 19,077,659, the health authorities said Friday.
The daily caseload was slightly down from 71,170 in the previous day, but it almost doubled 38,865 tallied a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
For the past week, the daily average number of confirmed cases was 56,813.
Among the new cases, 323 were imported, lifting the total to 40,870.
The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 130, up 23 from the previous day.
Thirty-one more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 24,825. The total fatality rate was 0.13 percent. ■