South Korean health authorities on Tuesday confirmed a total of 1,540 COVID-19 infections from people who tested positive after full vaccination.

The number of fully vaccinated people who were infected with COVID-19 was 1,540 as of August 5, up from 1,132 a week earlier, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

It said the figure represented 23.6 per cent out of every 100,000 people.

As of August 5, the number of fully inoculated people was 6,516,203.

Among the total, 221 were infected with the Delta variant, 24 with Alpha, one with Beta and one with Gamma.

Fifteen of the numbers were serious cases, and two deaths were found from the breakthrough infections.

The report referred to people infected with the virus two weeks after the full inoculation.

It added that people could only be protected from the virus two weeks after the full vaccination.

The KDCA said the breakthrough infections could be found from all Covid-19 vaccines, noting that the benefit from the vaccination remained large as the inoculation lowered the serious cases and death.

In the latest tally, South Korea reported 1,540 more cases of Covid-19 for the past 24 hours, lifting the total number of infections to 213,987.

The daily caseload hovered above 1,000 for 35 straight days.