Seoul Reports Record High of 13,198 New COVID-19 Cases

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji-hwan Park] As the COVID-19 Omicron variant spreads, the number of new confirmed cases in Seoul has set a record high in two days. The positivity rate, which refers to the ratio of confirmed cases to the number of tests conducted on the previous day, also recorded an all-time high.

Seoul city announced on the 12th that the number of new COVID-19 confirmed cases in the city on the 11th was counted at 13,198. This is 1,323 more than the previous record of 11,875 on the 9th. It also increased by 1,667 compared to 11,531 on the 10th.

The daily number of confirmed cases in Seoul first exceeded 4,000 on the 28th of last month with the spread of the Omicron variant. It then surged to the 5,000 range on the 2nd, 6,000 range on the 3rd, and 8,000 range on the 4th of this month. After a slight pause over the three days including the weekend, it exploded to over 10,000 from the 8th and has maintained over 10,000 for four consecutive days.

The PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test positivity rate was 23.3%, surpassing the previous record high of 20.4% on the 9th and 10th. This means more than one in five people tested positive. The number of tests conducted on the 11th was 59,576, about 3,000 more than the previous day. Among the new confirmed cases, 9 were imported from overseas, and the remaining 13,189 were domestic cases. The age distribution of new confirmed cases is as follows: 20s (24.3%), 30s (17.2%), 40s (14.5%), and teens (12.9%).

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