Unknown Infection Route COVID-19 Patients Below 10%... Half the Level Compared to Two Weeks Ago (Update)

Status of new COVID-19 cases by infection route over the past two weeks. Classified based on 1,294 reported cases from 12:00 AM March 24 to 12:00 AM April 7.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] Among domestic confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the proportion of patients with unclear infection routes or those under investigation has fallen below 10%. It once approached 20%, but authorities praised that this was thanks to the majority of citizens adhering to social distancing and personal hygiene measures in their daily lives.

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters for COVID-19 as of midnight on the 7th, there were 1,025 cases classified as other investigations or under classification among the cumulative patients. This accounts for 9.9% of the total patients. Although 47 new patients were added compared to the previous day, the number of other classified cases decreased by 7 during the same period. About 82.3% of the total patients are related to cluster outbreaks such as the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

As of the 24th of last month, other patients with unidentified infection routes numbered 1,772, accounting for 19.6% of the cumulative patients at that time. Since then, authorities analyzed that the effect of identifying the infection routes of these patients through epidemiological investigations, along with the high-intensity social distancing initiated at the government-wide level, helped prevent infections through unspecified routes.

On the afternoon of the 6th, employees at Emart Co., Ltd. headquarters, an exemplary company for social distancing related to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), are working in a staggered manner, sitting one seat apart.

At a briefing on the same day, Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Director of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, said, "Modeling techniques have confirmed that if transmission chains are cut off through strong social distancing, the number of cases can be reduced by about 95% in approximately three weeks." He added, "The number of new patients as well as the proportion of patients with unknown infection routes are very important, and if the overall scale and proportion remain at (low levels) for about two weeks, we will prepare to implement daily quarantine measures."

According to the quarantine headquarters, among patients reported in the past two weeks, those who entered from overseas or had contact with such cases account for 52%, more than half. Patients related to hospitals and nursing hospitals account for 29%, and those infected through contact with existing confirmed patients make up about 7%. Other cluster outbreaks account for 7%, and Shincheonji-related patients about 1%. The proportion of cases with unclear infection routes is about 4%. Among all imported cases, Europe accounts for the largest number with 389, followed by the Americas with 306, other Asian regions excluding China with 87, China with 17, and Africa with 3.

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