South Korea expands rapid testing amid record Covid infections

More than 85% of South Korea’s 51 million people have been fully vaccinated and more than 53% have received booster shots

A medical worker passes by people as they wait for their coronavirus tests in Seoul, South Korea (Ahn Young-joon/AP)

South Korea has begun enforcing a new coronavirus policy centred on rapid testing as health officials reported a record number of new infections following the Lunar New Year holiday.

The 22,907 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency marked a second straight day of more than 20,000 new infections and about a five-fold increase from daily cases seen in mid-January, when the highly contagious Omicron variant first became the country’s dominant strain.