The number of patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 infections has increased five-point-one times in the past four weeks.

Data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) on Thursday showed that the number of newly hospitalized patients with COVID-19 had increased from 91 in the first week of July, to 148 in the second week, 225 in the third week and 465 in the fourth week.

The virus detection rate also increased from seven-point-four percent in the fourth week of June to 24-point-six percent in the third week of July, a 17-point-two percent increase over the four week period.

The government plans to introduce a new COVID-19 vaccine in October and begin vaccinating elderly individuals over the age of 65 in the same month.

According to Hong Jeong-ik, a senior official at the KDCA, various infectious diseases are currently prevalent, including COVID-19, whooping cough, hand, foot and mouth disease and Mycoplasma pneumonia infection.