Daily Confirmed Cases Reach 16,096... Record High for Four Consecutive Days

Surge Expected for About 5 to 8 Weeks... 100,000 Cases Per Day Anticipated

On the 28th, one day before the Lunar New Year holiday, people are lining up for COVID-19 testing at the screening clinic of Gangseo-gu Public Health Center in Seoul. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung, Sejong=Reporter Son Seon-hee] The number of new daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 16,000, setting a record high for the fourth consecutive day.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced on the 28th at midnight that the number of new confirmed cases increased by 16,096 from the previous day, bringing the total to 793,582. The number of new cases jumped past 16,000, rising by 1,581 from 14,515 the day before.

The daily confirmed cases, which were 8,570 on the 25th, entered the 10,000 range for the first time on the 26th with 13,010 cases, then increased to 14,515 on the 27th, and again rose to 16,096 in just one day. Notably, the new cases on this day were nearly 2.5 times the 6,767 cases reported a week earlier on the 21st, and more than 3.5 times the 4,538 cases from two weeks earlier on the 14th. Accordingly, the average daily number of confirmed cases over the past week reached 10,619, surpassing 10,000 for the first time.

The death toll increased by 24 in one day, totaling 6,678. However, the number of critically ill patients decreased by 34 from the previous day to 316.

Experts expect the number of confirmed cases to rise sharply over the next one to two months due to the spread of the Omicron variant. Professor Jung Jae-hoon of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Gachon University College of Medicine said, "The next 5 to 8 weeks will be a period of increasing confirmed cases," adding, "The peak varies depending on predictive models, but most experts expect it to exceed 100,000."

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting on the same day, "The five-day Lunar New Year holiday starting tomorrow will likely be a variable that determines the scale of the Omicron outbreak," urging, "Please refrain from traveling to hometowns and gatherings as much as possible."