COVID-19 model student South Korea saw new infections with the virus rise again to more than 1,000 cases per day in late December, higher than during the first wave in February and March. The country has been praised extensively for reducing cases of COVID-19, but the country's third wave shows how the threat of new outbreaks looms even after flattening the curve (twice before). The highest number of daily new cases in the initial wave was recorded at 813 on Feb 29, while Dec 24 saw a whopping 1,237. New cases slowed at the turn of the new year, but unexpectedly ticked up to 621 on Tuesday.
Still, these cases being recorded now are only a sliver of those detected daily in the U.S. and Europe. There, daily new case counts of COVID-19 are still in the tens of thousands.