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The number of new COVID-19 cases reached 1,615, again the highest ever. Advance reservations for vaccines between the ages of 55 and 59, which have been suspended, will resume today (14th) at 8 PM



First news, this is reporter Kim Yong-tae



<Reporter> The



spread of the 4th COVID-19 pandemic is getting stronger.



The number jumped from 1,100 to 1,600, an increase of more than 460 from the day before.



The previous record of 1,378 people was greatly changed in four days.



Excluding 47 cases imported from overseas, 1,568 cases were domestically infected.



In the metropolitan area, where the number of confirmed cases is concentrated, 1,179 people, including 633 in Seoul and 453 in Gyeonggi, came out, and 389 in non-metropolitan areas, showing that the fourth epidemic is spreading across the country.



The number of people who received the first dose of the corona vaccine is 15.72 million, or 30.6% of the population, and 6.05 million, or 11.8%, of the population.



Advance reservations for the 55-59-year-old vaccine, which have been suspended, will resume at 8pm tonight.



Ages 50 to 54 Advance reservations will start at 8 pm on the 19th, next Monday, and will be distributed sequentially by age.



Reservations for those aged 53 and 54, that is, those born in 1967 and 1968, from 8:00 pm on July 19th, and those between 50 and 52 years old and those born in 1969 to 1971 from 8:00 pm on July 20th.



From the next day, advance reservations were made possible regardless of age.



[Jung Eun-kyung/Director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: By improving the inconveniences related to advance reservations, the start time of advance reservations was adjusted from 00:00 to 20:00 to solve the inconvenience of waiting for reservations until late at night.]



50 to 54 years old Age group vaccinations are scheduled to take place from August 16th to 25th.



The government repeatedly apologized for the suspension of advance reservations for people in their 50s, but emphasized that the Moderna vaccine to be introduced in the third quarter is large enough for people in their 50s to receive both the first and second doses.