COVID-19 New Cases 4,524... First '400s' of Overseas Inflow

Incheon International Airport / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] As the Omicron COVID-19 variant spreads, the number of imported cases in South Korea has reached the 400s for the first time, setting a new record high.

On the 14th, the Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) announced that as of midnight, there were 4,542 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 683,566. The number of new cases is 376 more than the previous day’s 4,166 and 829 more than a week ago (7th), when there were 3,713 cases.

The number of critically ill patients fell below 700 for the first time in 45 days. On this day, the number of critically ill patients was 659, marking the first time in 45 days since November 30 last year (661 patients) that the number dropped below 700. The utilization rate of severe care beds also remains stable in the high 30% range. As of 5 p.m. the previous day, the nationwide utilization rate of COVID-19 severe care beds was 37.1% (660 out of 1,780 beds in use).

The death toll increased by 49, bringing the cumulative total to 6,259 (cumulative fatality rate 0.92%).

Looking at the infection routes of new confirmed cases, 4,133 were locally transmitted and 409 were imported. Among the locally transmitted cases, Gyeonggi had 1,784 cases, Seoul 835, and Incheon 242, totaling 2,861 cases (69.2%) in the metropolitan area. Non-metropolitan areas reported a total of 1,272 cases (30.8%), including Gwangju 224, Gangwon 139, Jeonnam 132, Busan 121, Gyeongnam 117, Chungnam and Jeonbuk 99 each, Gyeongbuk 88, Daegu 77, Chungbuk 67, Daejeon 64, Ulsan 34, Sejong 8, and Jeju 3.

The majority of imported cases were infected with the Omicron variant. In particular, a total of 119 cases have been confirmed so far among those infected after attending 'CES 2022,' which recently concluded in the United States. Many representatives from domestic companies also attended this event, which shortened its schedule by one day and closed on the 7th (local time) due to the spread of the Omicron variant and other factors.

According to health authorities, among the 886 imported cases last week, 781 cases (88.1%) were Omicron variant cases. The domestic detection rate of the Omicron variant also recorded double digits for the first time at 12.5%.

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