Weekly Confirmed Cases Up 2.9% from Previous Week... Reinfection Rate at 12.11% (Update)

On the 10th, when 55,365 new COVID-19 cases were reported, citizens visiting the screening clinic set up at Yongsan-gu Public Health Center in Seoul were moving to get tested. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] The weekly number of COVID-19 confirmed cases increased by about 2.9% compared to the previous week. The proportion of cases suspected to be reinfections among the weekly confirmed cases also rose compared to the previous week.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 30th, the weekly COVID-19 confirmed cases for the fourth week of this month (20th to 26th) totaled 377,809, with a daily average of 59,373 cases, marking a 2.9% increase from the previous week.

The effective reproduction number (Rt) was 1.01, down 0.09 from a week earlier but remained above 1 for six consecutive weeks. An Rt above 1 indicates the spread of the epidemic, while below 1 indicates containment.

The increase rate of critically ill patients was higher than that of confirmed cases. During the same period, the daily average number of critically ill patients hospitalized increased by 15.3% to 460. Since the fourth week of last month (238 patients), the daily average number of critically ill patients has been rising for four consecutive weeks. Monitoring the confirmed cases from the second week of this month for two weeks showed a severe progression rate of 0.19%, the highest since June along with the first week of last month.

The weekly daily average number of COVID-19 deaths decreased by 8.8% from the previous week to 49, but it is higher than two weeks ago. The numbers over the recent four weeks were 32 in the first week, 38 in the second week, 53 in the third week, and 49 in the fourth week of this month.

The proportion of suspected reinfection cases among weekly confirmed cases from the 13th to the 19th was 12.11%, up 1.43 percentage points from the previous week (10.68%). This is the first time the weekly reinfection suspected case rate has exceeded 12%. Among all reinfections, 51.7% were initially infected during the BA.1 dominant period and reinfected during the BA.5 dominant period. By age group, children aged 5 to 11 accounted for the largest share at 25.35% of those infected twice.

The variant detection rate showed dominance of the BA.5 sublineages and the BA.2.75 lineage. As of the 26th, the BA.5 detection rate in South Korea was confirmed at 77.5%, down from 79.5% a week earlier. The detection rate of BF.7, a BA.5 sublineage, increased from 1.7% to 2.6%, and BQ.1.1 rose from 3.1% to 3.8%. BA.2.75's detection rate more than doubled from 1.8% to 3.9% within a week. The detection rate of BN.1, a BA.2.75 sublineage, was 7.7%, the second highest after BA.5.