South Korea has confirmed a total of 252 breakthrough COVID-19 infections involving people who tested positive for COVID-19 even after being administered with the full-dose vaccine regimen here, health authorities said Tuesday.

Of the total, 143 were administered with Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine followed by 59 with Pfizer's and 50 with AstraZeneca's, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The KDCA said similar cases may increase as the country's vaccine rollout revs up, though the proportion of breakthrough cases of the total is extremely low.

The rate came to 4.46 cases per population of 100,000, the KDCA said.

The authorities said even after full vaccination, a person can be infected with COVID-19. They also said that those who are classified as breakthrough infection cases have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic.

On Tuesday, the country added 1,150 new COVID-19 cases, with the figure rising by more than 1,000 for the seventh consecutive day, as worries ran high over a further uptick in new infections.

A total of 15.6 million people, or 30.4 percent of the country's population, have received their first shots of COVID-19 vaccines, remaining almost unchanged from 29.8 percent tallied at end-June. (Yonhap)