"Holiday's Over" ... Highest Severe Cases in 112 Days, This Week's 'Rebound' Critical Point

Increase of 42 from Previous Day, Over 500 Cases for Three Consecutive Days
Health Authorities to Announce New Peak Forecast Today

On the 12th, as the spread of COVID-19 continued, the domestic terminal of Gimpo Airport in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, was crowded with travelers. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] As the COVID-19 resurgence continues, the number of critically ill patients has recorded over 500 for three consecutive days, marking the highest figure since the end of April. Although the daily new confirmed cases remained in the 80,000 range during the weekend and the Gwangbokjeol holiday, there are forecasts that confirmed cases will rise again with increased weekday testing and the start of elementary, middle, and high school semesters this week, potentially prolonging the resurgence longer than expected.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 16th, as of midnight, 84,128 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed, bringing the total cumulative cases to 21,502,164. This is an increase of 22,050 from the previous day's figure (62,078), but nearly half compared to the weekday figure a week ago on the 9th (149,866).

From the 10th to the recent week, the daily new confirmed cases were 151,748 → 137,204 → 128,714 → 124,592 → 119,603 → 62,078 → 84,128, averaging 115,438 cases per day.

Earlier, the government predicted the peak of this summer's resurgence to reach up to 280,000 new cases per day, then lowered it to 150,000 as the spread slowed, and recently revised it upward again to 200,000 at the beginning of this month. The health authorities are expected to announce a new forecast today considering trends after the summer vacation and holiday period.

As of midnight today, the number of critically ill patients hospitalized increased by 42 from the previous day (521) to 563, marking the highest number in 112 days since April 26 (613). Compared to a week ago on the 9th (364), it is 1.5 times higher, and eight times more than a month ago on the 16th of last month (70).

The number of critically ill patients reflects the increase in new confirmed cases with a 1-2 week lag. Since daily new cases have exceeded 100,000 since the beginning of this month, the number of critically ill patients is likely to continue rising for the time being.

Among the critically ill patients, 281 (49.91%) were aged 80 or older, followed by 126 in their 70s and 88 in their 60s.

Nearly half of the severe care beds are occupied. The nationwide severe bed utilization rate is 45.5% (814 out of 1,790 beds in use), up 0.5 percentage points from the previous day (45.0%). The moderate-severe bed utilization rate is 46.6%, and the semi-severe bed utilization rate is 65.0%, down 0.7 and 0.3 percentage points respectively from the previous day, but the semi-severe bed utilization rate in the metropolitan area remains high at 71.7%.

The number of deaths reported the previous day was 37, down 13 from the day before (50). Among the deceased, 21 (56.8%) were aged 80 or older, 10 were in their 70s, 5 in their 60s, and 1 in their 50s.

As of 5 p.m. the previous day, there were 13,733 respiratory patient care centers operating nationwide, of which 9,926 were one-stop care institutions providing diagnosis, testing, prescription, and treatment for respiratory patients.