'Record High' 56,431 New Confirmed Cases, Over 50,000 for Four Consecutive Days

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

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] On the 13th, the number of new domestic COVID-19 cases again recorded over 50,000, setting a new record high. It has been in the 50,000 range for four consecutive days.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight on that day, 56,431 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total to 1,350,630.

The daily new cases increased by 1,490 from the previous highest record of 54,941 cases the day before, marking the highest number for two consecutive days despite the weekend.

The number of new cases on this day was 1.5 times that of a week ago on the 6th (38,688 cases) and 3.2 times that of two weeks ago on the 30th of last month (17,526 cases).

Due to the spread of the Omicron variant, the increase in new cases is expected to continue for the time being.

Authorities predict that the daily number of cases will reach between 130,000 and 170,000 by the end of this month, and the National Institute for Mathematical Sciences forecasts that daily cases could reach up to 360,000 in early next month.

However, the number of critically ill patients is not increasing as rapidly as the number of new cases.

As of midnight on this day, the number of critically ill patients was 288, an increase of 13 from the previous day (275), maintaining the 200s for the 16th consecutive day.

The nationwide COVID-19 severe bed occupancy rate rose by 2.0 percentage points from the previous day (20.2%) to 22.2% (572 out of 2,573 beds in use).

The number of deaths increased by 3 from the previous day (33) to 36. The cumulative death toll is 7,081, with a cumulative fatality rate of 0.52%.

Asymptomatic and mild cases are rapidly increasing.

As of midnight on this day, the number of patients receiving home treatment was 214,869, exceeding 200,000 for the first time since the start of COVID-19 home treatment.

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