Seoul, Aug 10 (IANS): South Korea confirmed a total of 1,540 "breakthrough" Covid-19 infections, which refer to people who test positive for the virus after getting fully vaccinaed, health authorities said on Tuesday.

The new figure was up from 1,132 a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

It equals to 23.6 in every 100,000 people, reports Xinhua news agency.

Till date, 6,516,203 people in South Korea have been fully vaccinated.

It is known that people can be protected from the virus two weeks after the full vaccination. The breakthrough case refers to people infected with the virus two weeks after the full inoculation.

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

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

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

On Tuesday, South Korea reported 1,540 new cases, lifting the overall infection tally to 213,987.

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

The country's death toll stood at 2,134.