COVID-19 New Cases 1,050... Four Digits for Two Consecutive Days (Update)

Medical staff are collecting specimens at a temporary drive-through screening clinic set up at Magok Sports Center in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] On the 30th, 1,050 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were identified in South Korea. Following 1,045 cases the previous day, the daily count has exceeded 1,000 for two consecutive days. Despite the government implementing special strengthened quarantine measures for the year-end and New Year period until January 3rd next year to reverse the third wave, the spread shows little sign of slowing down.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight, 1,050 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed, bringing the total to 59,773. Of these, 1,025 were locally transmitted and 25 were imported cases.

The daily domestic confirmed cases over the past week from the 24th to the 30th were 985 → 1,241 → 1,132 → 970 → 807 (corrected from the initially reported 808) → 1,045 (corrected from 1,046) → 1,050. The number of new daily cases exceeding 100 has continued for 53 days since the 8th of last month.

Among the local transmissions on this day, 383 cases were reported in Seoul, 274 in Gyeonggi, and 48 in Incheon, totaling 705 cases in the metropolitan area alone. Confirmed cases were reported in all 13 other provinces except Jeonnam, with 49 in Daegu, 45 in Chungbuk, 38 in Busan, 36 in Gyeongnam, 32 in Jeonbuk, 27 in Chungnam, 21 in Gyeongbuk, 19 in Daejeon, 17 in Gangwon, 15 in Ulsan, 10 in Jeju, 9 in Gwangju, and 2 in Sejong.

Of the 25 imported cases, 11 were detected during quarantine, and the remaining 14 were confirmed in the community. Among them, 15 were Korean nationals and 10 were foreigners.

The death toll increased by 20 from the previous day, reaching a cumulative total of 879. Among hospitalized patients, the number of critically ill patients increased by 2 to 332. The number of patients who have recovered and been released from isolation rose by 732 to 41,435.

Meanwhile, the number of diagnostic tests conducted the previous day was 61,343, which is 1,469 more than the 59,874 tests conducted the day before. The positivity rate, calculated by confirmed cases over the number of tests conducted the previous day, was 1.71% (1,050 out of 61,343), slightly down from 1.75% (1,046 out of 59,874) the day before. At temporary screening clinics set up in the metropolitan area, 41,154 free anonymous tests were conducted the previous day, and 107 new confirmed cases were identified through tests conducted the day before. Since the 14th, the cumulative number of confirmed cases identified at temporary screening clinics has reached 1,567.

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