The Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) announced on the 17th that the weekly new confirmed cases for the second week of May (May 7?13) reached 127,992, marking a 20.8% increase compared to the previous week. The infection reproduction number rose by 0.02 percentage points to 1.11, maintaining a level above 1 since the fourth week of March (March 19?25). A value above 1 indicates that the epidemic is spreading, and the health authorities attribute this to the lifting of indoor mask mandates and increased daily activities.
During the same period, the average daily number of critically ill patients was 147, a 7.3% increase from 137 the previous week. The nationwide hospital bed occupancy rate rose to 43.8% from 38.2% the week before. The average daily death toll also increased by 61.7% (from 7 to 11). However, the CDCH assessed that the medical response capacity remains sufficient and rated the weekly COVID-19 risk level for the second week of May as 'low' nationwide, in the metropolitan area, and in non-metropolitan areas. This rating has been maintained for six consecutive weeks since the fourth week of March.
The detection rate of the COVID variant XBB.1.9.1 rose by 43 percentage points from the previous week to 21.5%. However, the detection rate of XBB.1.16, which has been associated with conjunctivitis symptoms, decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 9.3% compared to last week. The detection rate of XBB.1.5 remained steady in the mid-20% range at 25.9% for four consecutive weeks. BN.1, which had once become the dominant strain after BA.5, fell below 10% to 8.9%.
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