Confirmed Cases 'Doubling' Slightly Slowed
178 Critically Ill, 142 Deaths in One Week
The temporary COVID-19 screening site set up at Seoul Station Plaza on the 25th is crowded with citizens seeking testing. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@
As the spread of COVID-19 continues, the number of new confirmed cases per weekday is approaching 100,000 again. Although the 'doubling' phenomenon, where the number of confirmed cases doubles every week, has somewhat slowed down, the overall scale of confirmed cases continues to grow, leading to an increase in the number of critically ill patients and deaths.
According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 26th, as of midnight that day, the number of new COVID-19 confirmed cases increased by 99,327 from the previous day, bringing the total cumulative confirmed cases to 19,346,764.
This is the first time since April 21 (90,846 cases) that the daily new confirmed cases have exceeded 90,000. Compared to the previous day, which reflected the weekend effect with 35,883 cases, it increased nearly threefold, and compared to a week ago on the 19th (73,558 cases), it increased by 1.35 times, and compared to the 12th (37,344 cases), it increased by 2.66 times.
In particular, the number of critically ill patients rapidly increased from 91 on the 19th to 96, 107, 130, 140, 146, and 144 in the following days, reaching 168 on this day, the highest since June 2 (176 cases). The occupancy rate of intensive care unit beds dedicated to treating critically ill patients rose from 14.9% a week ago to 21.8% as of this day, and the occupancy rate of semi-intensive care beds increased from 27.5% to 40.4%.
The number of deaths has also exceeded 10 daily since the 13th of this month, reaching 142 in the recent week (July 20?26), which is 1.46 times higher than the 97 deaths recorded two weeks ago (July 13?19).
Experts predict that during this resurgence period, if the number of new confirmed cases continues to increase, the number of critically ill patients and deaths will also rise with a 1?2 week time lag, repeating the pattern.
Earlier this year, during the Omicron wave, the daily new confirmed cases exceeded 100,000 on February 18 and peaked at 621,147 on March 17, then dropped below 100,000 on April 21 (90,846 cases). During this period, the maximum number of critically ill patients reached 1,315 on March 31, and the highest daily death toll was 469 on March 24.
In addition to the BA.5 variant virus, which has already become dominant domestically, four cases of the BA.2.75 variant (nicknamed 'Centaurus'), known for stronger transmissibility and immune evasion, have been detected so far, suggesting it is highly likely that it has already spread widely in the community.
Professor Eom Jung-sik of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Gachon University Gil Medical Center stated, "The number of critically ill patients increases with a 1?2 week time lag, and it has already started to rise significantly since last week. Considering those who avoid testing or are asymptomatic/mildly infected, the actual number of confirmed cases has likely already far exceeded 100,000."
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