Health authorities say the portion that people 60 and older make among severe and fatal COVID-19 cases have been jointly on the rise since early last month. 

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) on Tuesday, the number of COVID-19 patients aged 60 and older stood at four-thousand-434 as of the first week of November, rising 29-point-five percent from the first week of October. 

Those critically ill in the age group also rose from 220, or 60-point-nine percent of all severe cases, to 289, or 79-point-two percent, during the cited period. 

A total of 452 people died of the virus between the first week of October and the first week of November. Two-hundred-79 of them, or 61-point-seven percent, were aged 60 or older and had not received or completed their vaccination. 

Health officials called for cooperation from those aged 60 and older to receive their COVID-19 vaccine shots, including boosters.