50,000+ Daily Cases for 6 Days, 'Record High'... US CDC Advises Against Travel to Korea

New Confirmed Cases 57,177
Severe Cases 314, Deaths 61

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The number of new COVID-19 cases has exceeded 50,000 for six consecutive days, setting a record high.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced on the 15th at midnight that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 57,177, bringing the total to 1,462,421. The number of critically ill patients rose by 8 from the previous day (306) to 314, marking two consecutive days above 300. The death toll also increased to 61, about three times higher than the previous day (21).

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) raised the COVID-19 level to the highest grade, "Level 4 (Very High)," on the 14th (local time) for South Korea and some other countries and regions, advising against travel to these countries.

Due to the Omicron variant surge, the number of confirmed cases is nearly doubling every week. The number of new cases on this day is about 1.6 times that of a week ago on the 8th (36,717 cases) and about 3.1 times that of two weeks ago on the 1st (18,338 cases).

As confirmed cases surge, the number of critically ill patients is also increasing. Typically, the number of critically ill patients tends to rise with a 2 to 3 week lag. The nationwide COVID-19 severe bed occupancy rate rose by 1.1 percentage points from 25.7% the previous day to 26.8%.

The health authorities have the capacity to manage up to 1,500 critically ill patients, so the situation is still manageable. However, there is concern about additional infections among people aged 60 and over who received their third vaccination early. The weekly number of confirmed cases among those aged 60 and over increased from 6,655 in the fourth week of January to 37,681 last week.

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