9 PM COVID-19 Cases Reach 27,710, Another Record High... Surge Continues Without Weekend Effect

Due to the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, the number of confirmed cases has been rapidly increasing day by day. Despite the severe cold wave arriving on the morning of the 6th, a holiday, many citizens are gathering at the Seoul Plaza screening clinic, waiting for testing. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeded 27,000 by 9 p.m. on the 6th, marking the highest number recorded at the same time slot.

Typically, the 'weekend effect' causes a decrease in testing and confirmed cases during weekends and holidays, but the highly transmissible Omicron variant has rapidly spread, resulting in record-high confirmed cases for two consecutive weekend days at the same time slot.

According to health authorities, Seoul city, and other local governments, from midnight to 9 p.m. on this day, a total of 27,710 people across 17 cities and provinces nationwide tested positive for COVID-19.

This is 909 more than the previous record of 26,801 cases recorded at the same time the day before.

The count up to 9 p.m. today is 1.8 times higher than the 15,142 cases recorded at 9 p.m. one week ago on the 30th of last month. Compared to 5,675 cases at the same time two weeks ago on the 23rd of last month, it has increased approximately 4.9 times. The number of confirmed cases is roughly doubling every week.

With time remaining until midnight when the count closes, the final number of new confirmed cases to be announced on the 7th is expected to exceed 30,000 again. If the recent upward trend continues over the weekend, the number of new confirmed cases could reach around 40,000.

On this day, 14,782 new cases (53.3%) were reported in the metropolitan area, and 12,928 new cases (46.7%) in non-metropolitan areas.

By city and province, the numbers are as follows: Seoul 6,473, Gyeonggi 625, Incheon 2,284, Daegu 1,993, Busan 1,734, Gyeongbuk 1,688, Chungnam 1,222, Gwangju 1,102, Daejeon 969, Jeonbuk 936, Gangwon 732, Chungbuk 664, Ulsan 593, Jeonnam 428, Jeju 365, Sejong 262, Gyeongnam 240. Confirmed cases were reported in all 17 cities and provinces.

The number of new confirmed cases continues to break daily records. Over the past week from the 31st of last month, the daily new confirmed cases were 10,779 → 18,341 → 20,269 → 22,907 → 27,439 → 36,347 → 38,691, averaging about 25,867 cases per day.

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