New Confirmed Cases at 7,630, Second Consecutive Day Above 7,000... Second Largest Scale Ever

On the 23rd, when 7,630 new COVID-19 cases were reported, citizens visited the temporary screening clinic set up at Seoul Station Plaza. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] As the COVID-19 Omicron variant rapidly spreads, the number of new domestic confirmed cases recorded in the 7,000 range for two consecutive days on the 23rd.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight on this day, there were 7,630 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing the cumulative total to 733,902. This is an increase of 622 cases from the previous day's 7,008, rising to the mid-7,000s. This is the second highest number ever recorded, following the 7,848 cases reported on the 15th of last month.

Usually, the number of new confirmed cases tends to be lower on holidays due to reduced testing over the weekend, but this was not the case on this day. It is analyzed that the spread of Omicron is causing a clear upward trend regardless of the day of the week.

On this day, the number of critically ill patients was 431, down by 2 from the previous day (433), marking four consecutive days in the 400s. The number of deaths increased by 11, bringing the cumulative total to 6,540. The number of deaths falling to the teens is the first time in 69 days since November 15 of last year. The cumulative fatality rate reached 0.89%.

Looking at the infection routes of new confirmed cases, 7,343 were locally transmitted and 287 were imported cases. Among the locally transmitted cases, Gyeonggi had 2,667, Seoul 1,634, and Incheon 589, with 4,890 cases (66.6%) coming from the metropolitan area.

In non-metropolitan areas, there were 448 in Daegu, 306 in Gwangju, 287 in Busan, 213 in Gyeongnam, 207 in Gyeongbuk, 197 in Chungnam, 191 in Jeonnam, 151 in Daejeon, 136 in Jeonbuk, 108 in Chungbuk, 84 in Ulsan, 79 in Gangwon, and 23 each in Sejong and Jeju, totaling 2,453 cases (33.4%).

The total number of new confirmed cases combining local transmission and imported cases (excluding quarantine) was 2,713 in Gyeonggi, 1,694 in Seoul, and 610 in Incheon, with 517 cases in the metropolitan area alone. The number of imported cases was 287, an increase of 7 from the previous day (280).

The domestic COVID-19 vaccination completion rate (percentage of those who have completed the basic vaccination) was 85.4% (a cumulative total of 43,801,851 people) as of midnight on this day. The third dose vaccination rate reached 49.2% of the total population (a cumulative total of 25,232,604 people).

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