Daejeon New COVID-19 Cases 'Average 40 per Day'... Sporadic Infections Continue

Provided by Daejeon City

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] In the past week, an average of 40 new COVID-19 cases per day have been reported in Daejeon.

According to Daejeon City on the 16th, the total number of new confirmed cases from the 9th to the 15th was 286, with an average of 40.8 people testing positive for COVID-19 daily.

In particular, on the 14th, 22 cases were confirmed in the morning and 38 in the evening, totaling 60 cases in one day. This number is close to the 61 cases reported on April 6, when the infectious disease spread from private tutoring academies to elementary schools in the area.

On the 15th, 49 new confirmed cases were reported, indicating that the spread of COVID-19 in the region is not showing signs of slowing down.

Recently, the number of new confirmed cases was below 30 only on the 11th (25 cases), and the days with cases in the 30s were limited to the 10th (32 cases) and the 12th (31 cases). On other days, the number of confirmed cases consistently exceeded 40.

The problem is that the spread of COVID-19 in the region continues sporadically. In fact, recent confirmed cases are not concentrated in specific groups but have occurred in everyday places such as PC rooms, hospitals, and restaurants, causing chain infections among family members and acquaintances.

For example, the list of confirmed cases from the previous day included three family members infected through a confirmed case from Nonsan, Chungnam, whose infection route was not identified.

Also, a case was reported where a teenage patient who was receiving treatment at a hospital in Jung-gu tested positive on the 14th, followed by three family members, two other patients, and one staff member from the same hospital testing positive the next day.

Confirmed cases with unclear infection routes are emerging simultaneously in multiple locations rather than a specific place (group), leading to a re-spread of the infectious disease through these intermediaries.

Meanwhile, Daejeon has been implementing 'Strengthened Social Distancing Level 2' since the 14th. The strengthened distancing limits private gatherings to four people and suspends all vaccine incentives. This is essentially a measure equivalent to Level 3, as Daejeon already meets the Level 3 criteria under the government's new distancing standards.

Under the government's new distancing criteria, Level 3 is defined as 2 cases per 100,000 population, which corresponds to 30 cases in Daejeon, while Level 4 is 4 cases per 100,000 population, corresponding to 60 cases in Daejeon.