COVID-19 New Cases 985... Still Approaching 1,000 (Update)

Death Toll Rises by 17 to a Total of 756

Citizens visiting the temporary screening clinic set up at Seoul Station Plaza are lining up and waiting for their turn. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] On the 24th, 985 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were identified in South Korea. This is 105 fewer than the previous day (1,090 cases), bringing the number down to the high 900s, but the number of daily confirmed cases still approaches 1,000, indicating that the third wave of the pandemic continues to spread.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight on the 24th, 985 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed domestically, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 53,533. Among these, 955 cases were locally transmitted, and 30 were imported from overseas.

The daily domestic confirmed cases over the past week from the 18th to the 24th were recorded as 1,064 → 1,051 → 1,097 → 926 → 867 → 1,090 → 985. The Central Disease Control Headquarters initially reported 1,092 cases for the previous day but corrected the figure to 1,090 after excluding two miscounted cases from Seoul and Gyeonggi. The number of new daily confirmed cases exceeding 100 has continued for 47 consecutive days since the 8th of last month.

On this day, among the locally transmitted cases, 314 were in Seoul, 277 in Gyeonggi, and 53 in Incheon, totaling 644 cases in the metropolitan area alone. Confirmed cases were also reported in all 14 other provinces, with 50 in Gyeongbuk, 46 in Chungbuk, 43 in Busan, 29 in Chungnam, 26 each in Daegu and Jeju, 21 each in Gangwon and Gyeongnam, 14 in Gwangju, 12 in Jeonbuk, 11 in Daejeon, 9 in Ulsan, 2 in Jeonnam, and 1 in Sejong.

Among the 30 imported cases, 11 were detected during quarantine, and the remaining 19 were identified in the community. Of these, 16 were Korean nationals and 14 were foreigners.

The death toll increased by 17 from the previous day, reaching a total of 756. Among hospitalized patients, the number of critically ill patients increased by 7 to 291. The number of patients who have recovered and been released from isolation rose by 699 to 37,425.

Meanwhile, the number of diagnostic tests conducted on the previous day was 55,640, which is 1,499 more than the 54,141 tests conducted the day before. The positivity rate, calculated by dividing the number of confirmed cases by the number of tests conducted the previous day, was 1.77% (985 out of 55,640), down from 2.02% (1,092 out of 54,141) the day before. At temporary screening clinics set up in the metropolitan area, 58,091 free anonymous tests were conducted the previous day, and 150 new confirmed cases were identified through testing the day before. Since the 14th, the cumulative number of confirmed cases identified at temporary screening clinics has reached 904.

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