New COVID-19 Cases Near 40,000... Cumulative Total Exceeds 1 Million (Update)

Over 30,000 Cases for Two Consecutive Days... 1 Million Cumulative Cases in 748 Days Since First Occurrence
Severe Cases in 200s for 9 Days... 15 Deaths Yesterday
128,716 Home Treatment Patients... About 10,000 More Than Yesterday

On the 3rd, citizens lined up at a temporary screening clinic in front of Seoul City Hall as the COVID-19 testing method changed. The general public will primarily receive rapid antigen tests using self-test kits instead of the conventional PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests. Alternatively, professional rapid antigen tests can be conducted at local clinics such as respiratory specialty clinics. Although the accuracy is lower than PCR, this measure aims to meet the increasing demand for testing due to the spread of the Omicron variant. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] The number of new COVID-19 cases exceeded 30,000 for the second consecutive day, setting another record high. The cumulative number of confirmed cases surpassed 1 million.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight on the 6th, the number of confirmed cases increased by 38,691, bringing the total to 1,009,688.

The number of new cases rose by 2,329 from 36,362 the previous day, marking a record high. Compared to two weeks ago on the 23rd of last month (7,626 cases), this is a 5.1-fold increase.

The daily new cases first exceeded 10,000 on the 26th of last month with 13,009 cases, then rose to over 20,000 within a week on the 2nd (20,269 cases). Just three days later, the number surpassed 30,000, and on this day, it approached 40,000.

This rapid increase in new cases is analyzed to be due to the Omicron variant, which has become the dominant strain with high transmissibility.

On this day, 22,011 new cases were reported in the metropolitan area alone. Gyeonggi Province recorded 11,952 cases, and Seoul reported 7,821 cases.

The cumulative number of confirmed cases exceeded 1 million. It took about 1 year and 10 months to surpass 500,000 cases, but only two months to reach 1 million.

Meanwhile, as of midnight, the number of critically ill patients was 272, maintaining the 200s for nine consecutive days. The death toll increased by 15, bringing the total to 6,873.

The number of asymptomatic and mild cases is rapidly increasing. As of midnight, the number of patients receiving home treatment was 128,716, an increase of 10,685 from the previous day.

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