Over 30,000 Cases Three Days After Entering 20,000 Range
Concerns of Sharp Increase Next Week as Seollal Holiday Impact Intensifies
Gyeonggi-do Records First 10,000 Cases... Highest for Four Consecutive Days
269 Critically Ill Patients... 12 More Than Previous Day
On the 3rd, when the COVID-19 testing method changed, citizens lined up at a temporary screening clinic in front of Seoul City Hall. The general public will primarily receive rapid antigen tests using self-test kits instead of the traditional PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests. Alternatively, professional rapid antigen tests can be conducted at local clinics such as respiratory specialist clinics. Although the accuracy is lower than PCR, this measure aims to meet the increasing demand for testing due to the spread of Omicron. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@
The number of new COVID-19 cases has surpassed 30,000. It has only been three days since the count dropped to the 20,000 range. Due to the unprecedented spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the number of confirmed cases is rapidly increasing day by day.
The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight, there were 36,362 new cases, bringing the total to 971,018.
The number of new cases first exceeded 10,000 on the 26th of last month with 13,009 cases, then rose to the 20,000 range on the 2nd of this month (20,269 cases) just a week later. Since then, it has surpassed 30,000 in only three days.
Compared to the previous day's 27,443 cases, the number surged by 8,919 in one day.
Gyeonggi-do recorded 10,449 cases, exceeding 10,000 for the first time, while Seoul had 8,598 cases and Incheon 2,494 cases, totaling 21,547 cases in the metropolitan area alone.
Gyeonggi-do set a new daily record for four consecutive days with 6,050 cases on the 1st, 6,557 on the 2nd, and 7,226 on the 3rd.
By city and county, Suwon-si (795 cases), Yongin-si (785 cases), Bucheon-si (736 cases), and Ansan-si (706 cases) recorded cases in the 700s.
Namyangju-si (663 cases), Siheung-si (583 cases), Seongnam-si (574 cases), Goyang-si (516 cases), and Hwaseong-si (511 cases) also reported over 500 cases.
Seoul, which exceeded 5,000 cases for the first time on the 3rd, increased to the 6,000 range the next day and then rapidly rose to the 8,000 range on this day.
In non-metropolitan areas, there were 1,930 cases in Busan, 1,637 in Daegu, 1,485 in Gyeongbuk, 1,480 in Gyeongnam, 1,232 in Gwangju, 1,272 in Jeonbuk, 1,155 in Chungnam, 1,027 in Daejeon, 962 in Jeonnam, 771 in Chungbuk, 691 in Gangwon, 503 in Ulsan, 293 in Sejong, and 247 in Jeju, totaling 14,685 cases (40.6%).
There is an analysis that the scale of confirmed cases could increase more sharply starting next week due to the impact of the Lunar New Year holiday, which involved nationwide travel and many face-to-face contacts.
As of midnight, the number of critically ill patients was 269, an increase of 12 from the previous day (257). The number has remained in the 200s for eight consecutive days. The number of deaths increased by 22, bringing the total to 6,858. The cumulative fatality rate is 0.71%.
Although the transmission rate is more than twice as fast as the previous Delta variant, the severity rate is only about one-third to one-fifth.
Regarding the infection routes of new confirmed cases, 36,162 were locally transmitted, and 200 were imported cases.
The average daily number of confirmed cases over the past week since the 30th of last month is approximately 22,847.
The COVID-19 vaccination completion rate (percentage of people who have completed the basic vaccination) as of midnight is 85.9% (a cumulative total of 44,092,874 people). The third dose has been administered to 54.5% of the total population (a cumulative total of 27,952,416 people).
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