Confirmed Cases Expected to Surpass Record High... 52,957 Cases Reported by 9 PM (Summary)

669 More Than the Previous Highest Concurrent Count of 52,288

On the 11th, when the number of new COVID-19 cases remained in the 50,000 range for the second consecutive day at 53,926, citizens lined up in a long queue at the temporary screening clinic at Seoul Station for testing. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] As the Omicron variant continues to spread, the number of confirmed cases exceeded 50,000 by 9 PM on the weekend of the 12th.

According to the quarantine authorities and local governments including Seoul, from midnight to 9 PM on that day, 52,957 people nationwide across 17 cities and provinces were confirmed positive for COVID-19.

This is 669 more than the previous highest count of 52,288 recorded at the same time the day before. Since there is still time until midnight when the count closes, the number of new confirmed cases announced on the 13th is expected to increase further, reaching the mid to high 50,000s.

Due to the impact of increased face-to-face contact and mobility during the Lunar New Year holiday, large-scale patient occurrences have continued throughout this week.

The quarantine authorities expect daily new confirmed cases to reach between 130,000 and 170,000 by the end of this month, and the National Institute for Mathematical Sciences forecasts that the number of confirmed cases could reach up to 360,000 per day in early next month.

New confirmed cases were 32,789 (61.9%) in the metropolitan area and 20,168 (38.1%) in non-metropolitan areas.

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