Daegu New Confirmed Cases Share Decreases by 16 Percentage Points in Three Days

Proportion of Daegu Among New Patients Nationwide Drops from 86% to 70%

[Asia Economy Reporters Choi Daeyeol, Kim Heungsun, Jo Hyun-ui] The proportion of new COVID-19 patients in the Daegu region is decreasing among the domestic new coronavirus infection cases. This is attributed to the focused virus diagnostic testing prioritized for high-risk groups with a high likelihood of infection, which helped identify a significant number of patients in advance.

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on the 6th, as of midnight, the number of new confirmed cases in Daegu was 367. Considering that the newly confirmed additional cases nationwide on the same day were 518, the proportion of patients in Daegu stands at about 70.8%.

The number of new patients in Daegu peaked at 741 on the 29th of last month and has maintained between 400 and 500 since the beginning of this month. Although the newly confirmed cases on this day increased slightly compared to the previous day (321), the proportion of Daegu among the total domestic patients has been steadily decreasing. The proportion of Daegu patients was highest at 86.7% on the 3rd, then dropped to 78.5% on the 4th, 73.3% on the 5th, and continued to decline on this day.

When measured by new patient occurrence, the proportion of Daegu falling to the low 70% range is the first time in a week since the 28th of last month. Since the 24th of last month, the health authorities have been announcing new confirmed cases by region, with Daegu consistently maintaining over 70%, making it the epicenter of the nationwide outbreak.

The health authorities estimate that this is due to a 'super-spreader' event where many people were exposed to the infection source at once, such as the Shincheonji Church of Jesus worship gatherings in Daegu around mid-last month, followed by sporadic additional transmissions through the activities of the church members in the local community. This is also why the health authorities and Daegu city implemented self-quarantine measures for all Shincheonji members in the area and prioritized diagnostic testing while monitoring symptoms.

Although the proportion of new patients in Daegu has somewhat decreased, the trend of hundreds of cases occurring daily continues, keeping the health authorities on alert. In particular, the sporadic cluster infection cases reported in neighboring areas such as Gyeongsan are a cause for concern.

Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Director of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, said at a briefing the previous day, "If we feel that the total number of cases has slightly decreased, past experiences of outbreaks have shown that pathogens inevitably penetrate through such relaxed gaps," adding, "We must not lower our guard even a bit and must not be complacent."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.