Today 'Record High' Over 2,000 Cases Reality..."No End in Sight for 4th Wave"

'Record High' After 568 Days Since First Domestic Patient in January Last Year

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] As the fourth wave of COVID-19 spreads rapidly in South Korea, the number of new daily confirmed cases has surpassed 2,000 for the first time. This is 568 days since the first domestic case was reported on January 20 last year.

According to the quarantine authorities, Seoul city, and other local governments on the 11th, the total number of new confirmed cases counted from midnight to 9 p.m. the previous day was 2,021. This is 637 more than the 1,384 cases recorded at the same time the previous day. It is also 456 more than the 1,565 cases counted at 9 p.m. last Tuesday (the 3rd). This is the first time daily new confirmed cases have exceeded 2,000.

In the metropolitan area alone, 1,380 new cases were reported: 618 in Seoul, 652 in Gyeonggi, and 110 in Incheon. Notably, both Seoul and Gyeonggi recorded the highest number of cases ever counted by 9 p.m. In non-metropolitan areas, 641 cases were confirmed, accounting for 31.7% of the total cases. By region, there were 110 in Gyeongnam, 103 in Busan, 76 in Chungnam, 67 in Gyeongbuk, 66 in Daegu, 48 in Ulsan, 34 in Chungbuk, 32 in Daejeon, 28 in Jeju, 20 in Gwangju, 19 each in Gangwon and Jeonbuk, 18 in Jeonnam, and 1 in Sejong, with new cases reported in all regions nationwide.

As a result, the record of four-digit daily confirmed cases has continued for 36 consecutive days since the 7th of last month. The fourth wave, which began in early July, has now lasted nearly one and a half months. Especially in the metropolitan area, where the highest level 4 social distancing measures?the core of domestic quarantine efforts?have been in place for five weeks, the spread has not slowed at all. The early warning from quarantine authorities that new cases could rise to the 2,300 range by mid-August has also become a reality.

Unlike the previous first to third waves, which saw a rapid increase in cases centered on large-scale cluster infections, this wave is characterized mainly by sporadic infections through individual contacts, raising further concerns. Infections continue in everyday spaces across the country. At a church in Seocho-gu, Seoul, 33 additional cases tested positive after the first case was reported on the 4th of this month, and at a restaurant in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, 12 cases have been confirmed since the 8th. Workplace infections have also been confirmed, such as 14 employees infected at an automobile parts manufacturer in Seosan, Chungnam.

This wave is also linked to the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant. Over the past week, the detection rate of major variant viruses among domestic infection cases was 75.6%. The detection rate of the Delta variant was 73.1%, up 11.6 percentage points from the previous week. Last week, 2,399 major variant cases were additionally confirmed domestically, of which 2,321 were Delta variant infections.

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