Newly Confirmed Cases 36,938, Up by Over 8,000 from Previous Day... 553 in Critical Condition

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] On the last day of the Chuseok holiday, the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases rebounded after six days, reaching the high 30,000s on the 12th.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight on that day, 36,938 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed, bringing the cumulative total to 24,041,825. This is an increase of 8,724 cases compared to the previous day (28,214 cases). Typically, the number of new cases reported on Mondays tends to be lower than on Sundays due to a decrease in testing, but this day saw a rebound. This is believed to be because the number of diagnostic tests, which sharply decreased on the day before and the day of the Chuseok holiday, increased again in the latter part of the holiday. However, the number of new cases on this day was 592 fewer than a week ago on the 5th (37,530 cases) and 6,173 fewer than two weeks ago on the 29th of last month (43,111 cases).

Among the new cases on this day, 202 were imported cases, which is 26 fewer than the previous day (228 cases). Excluding imported cases, there were 36,736 domestic infections.

The number of new confirmed cases by region (including imported cases) was as follows: Gyeonggi 10,083, Seoul 6,289, Gyeongnam 2,437, Incheon 2,223, Gyeongbuk 1,878, Daegu 1,814, Chungnam 1,710, Jeonbuk 1,572, Busan 1,545, Chungbuk 1,362, Jeonnam 1,306, Daejeon 1,275, Gangwon 1,233, Gwangju 883, Ulsan 575, Sejong 421, Jeju 287, and quarantine 45.

The number of critically ill patients was 553, an increase of 21 from the previous day (532). The number of deaths due to COVID-19 on the previous day was 22, which is 25 fewer than the day before (47).

As of 5 p.m. the previous day, the bed occupancy rates were 32.9% for critically ill beds (608 out of 1,846 beds in use), 41.8% for semi-critical beds, and 28.9% for moderate beds. As of midnight on this day, the number of confirmed patients under home treatment was 343,341, a decrease of 38,914 from the previous day (382,255).