<Anchor> There were



1,318 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the highest number as of Sunday. The proportion of patients in non-metropolitan areas continued to rise and exceeded 40%, and it was found that half of the new confirmed cases were delta-mutated infections.



Reporter Nam Joo-hyun.



<Reporter> As the number of



group infections related to Taekwondo in Seo-gu, Daejeon continued to grow, 9 more were confirmed, and the cumulative number exceeded 200.



It has been 9 days since the first confirmed case occurred.



Daejeon is the most serious in the non-metropolitan area, enough to choose Level 4, the highest level.



The number of confirmed cases per 100,000 people is 4.8, which is slightly less than Seoul and more than Gyeonggi and Incheon.



Quarantine authorities are also paying attention to the spread of Sejong, Busan, Gyeongnam, Jeju, and Gangwon, where there are more than two patients per 100,000 population.



As such, the proportion of non-metropolitan areas among domestic confirmed cases has risen to 40.7%.



The number of local governments that have been upgraded to level 4 is also increasing.



Gimhae City, which has more than 230 confirmed cases due to the group infection of foreign nightlife bars, chose Level 4, and Yangyang County, Gangwon Province, decided to maintain Level 4.



[Kwon Jun-wook/Director of the National Institute of Health: With the balloon effect and the increase in the amount of travel during the holiday season, the trend shifted to increasing mainly in large cities and travel areas in non-metropolitan areas… .] The



delta mutation, which has more than twice the transmission power of the existing virus, is spreading.



It was detected in 48% of confirmed cases last week, but this week it exceeded 50%, leading the domestic corona epidemic, health authorities analyzed.



On the other hand, it was concluded that the three confirmed patients who attended the workers' meeting of the KCTU on the 3rd were infected from another person at a restaurant four days after the rally.



About 4,700 of those attending the rally were tested, and no additional confirmed cases were found, the health authorities explained.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol, video editing: Kim Jong-tae)