COVID-19 New Cases Reach 200,000s After Ten Days... Deaths Are Second Highest Ever

New Confirmed Cases: 209,169
Deaths: 329 · Critically Ill: 1,130

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The daily number of new COVID-19 cases dropped by 120,000 in one day, falling back to the 200,000 range for the first time in ten days. However, the number of deaths remained in the 300s for the fourth consecutive day, marking the second highest death toll on record.

As of midnight on the 21st, the Central Disease Control Headquarters reported 209,169 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total cumulative cases to 9,582,815. This is a sharp decrease of 125,539 cases compared to the previous day (334,708 cases). The number of new cases has decreased for four consecutive days since reaching a record high of 621,281 on the 17th, dropping back to the 200,000 range after ten days.

Although new cases have decreased, deaths and critically ill patients continue to rise. As of midnight, the number of deaths was 329, the second highest on record since 429 deaths on the 17th. The death toll has remained in the 300s for four consecutive days, with a cumulative death count of 12,757 and a cumulative fatality rate of 0.13%.

The number of critically ill patients reached 1,130, an increase of 97 from the previous day (1,033). The number of critically ill patients has remained above 1,000 since the 8th.

As the number of critically ill patients increases, hospital bed occupancy rates are also rising. The total number of COVID-19 hospital beds is 52,676, with occupancy rates of 69.0% for critical care beds, 71.3% for semi-critical and moderate care beds, and 45.9% for mild care beds. The operation rate of residential treatment centers is 28.2%.

The number of patients receiving home treatment fell below 2 million for the first time in three days since the 18th. As of midnight, the current number of home treatment patients was 1,993,986. Among them, 301,156 are in the intensive management group, and 246,823 were newly classified as home treatment patients yesterday.