7019 Omicron Cases Confirmed in One Week... 80-90% Expected by February

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] The number of new confirmed cases infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant in South Korea increased by 7,019 over the past week.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) on the 31st, the number of patients finally confirmed to be infected with the Omicron variant through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests for Omicron variant detection from the 23rd to the 29th was 7,019.

This is 1.45 times higher compared to the 4,830 cases confirmed in the previous week from the 16th to the 22nd. The cumulative number of infections in the country has increased to 16,879.

Among the 7,019 infections confirmed last week, 1,856 were imported cases, and 5,163 were domestic cases.

The Omicron variant became the dominant strain in South Korea as its detection rate reached 50.3% in the third week of this month (17th to 23rd). The detection rate for the fourth week will be announced this afternoon. Experts expect it to rise to 80-90% by February.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) estimated that assuming the transmissibility of the Omicron variant is 2.5 times that of the Delta variant, the number of new confirmed cases could reach between 31,800 and 52,200 by the end of February.

To monitor the domestic spread of the Omicron variant, the health authorities are investigating the presence of Omicron infection in all imported confirmed cases, and conducting sample investigations on some domestic confirmed cases.

Although the announced cumulative number of infections is 16,879, since testing is not conducted on all confirmed cases, the actual number of Omicron infections is expected to be much higher.

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