As of the end of last month, the number of new COVID-19 cases has decreased for four consecutive weeks. On the 31st of last month, the COVID-19 infectious disease classification was downgraded from level 2 to level 4, and as a result, the comprehensive survey-based counting of new cases has now been discontinued.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on the 4th, the weekly average daily number of COVID-19 cases for the 5th week of August (August 27?31) was approximately 36,000, which is a 4.4% decrease compared to the previous week (about 38,000).
The reproduction number, which indicates how many people one infected person transmits the virus to, has consistently remained below 1. Since the second week of August, the summer surge has subsided, and the downward trend in infections is expected to continue for the time being.
Going forward, COVID-19 case counts will be conducted through sample surveillance. The health authorities have designated 527 surveillance institutions, and the status of confirmed cases within these institutions will be announced every Thursday. With the endemic phase of COVID-19 reducing the effectiveness of comprehensive surveillance, the KDCA stated that it is still possible to monitor epidemic trends through sample surveillance.
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