COVID-19 New Cases Surge to 70,000s... Record Highs by Region

On the 6th, citizens lined up in a long queue to get tested for COVID-19 at a temporary screening clinic installed in Peace Park, Mapo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] As of 6 PM on the 15th, more than 70,000 COVID-19 cases were confirmed nationwide.

According to the quarantine authorities and local governments including Seoul City, from midnight to 6 PM on this day, 71,915 people across 17 cities and provinces nationwide were confirmed positive for COVID-19. This is an increase of 23,280 cases compared to the previous record of 48,635 cases at the same time on the previous day.

Compared to the count at the same time one week ago on the 8th (28,880 cases), it is about 2.5 times higher, and compared to two weeks ago on the 1st (11,675 cases), it is 6.2 times higher.

This number is also 14,738 cases more than the 57,177 new cases reported as of midnight on the same day.

For six consecutive days since the 10th, the number of new confirmed cases remained in the 50,000 range. However, after a weekend slowdown due to fewer tests, the number of confirmed cases increased again during the weekdays, skipping the 60,000 range and jumping straight to over 70,000.

The government expects that by the end of this month, the number of new confirmed cases could reach between 130,000 and 170,000 or more. Since there is still time until midnight when the count is finalized, the number of new cases to be announced on the 16th is expected to be even higher.

On this day, 41,783 new cases (58.1%) were reported in the metropolitan area, and 30,132 cases (41.9%) in non-metropolitan areas. By city and province, Gyeonggi reported 20,634 cases and Seoul 17,391 cases, with these two regions alone accounting for nearly or over 20,000 cases.

Additionally, other regions also surpassed previous records consecutively, including Gyeongnam with 3,863 cases, Incheon 3,758 cases, Daegu 3,571 cases, Busan 3,124 cases, Chungnam 2,852 cases, Gyeongbuk 2,765 cases, Daejeon 2,444 cases, Gwangju 2,285 cases, Chungbuk 1,862 cases, Ulsan 1,760 cases, Gangwon 1,620 cases, Jeonnam 1,317 cases, Jeonbuk 1,103 cases, Jeju 938 cases, and Sejong 628 cases.

Since the Omicron variant became the dominant strain domestically, the scale of new confirmed cases has continued to increase sharply.

As of midnight on this day, there were 245,940 people under home treatment. Among them, 56,719 were newly assigned to home treatment, including 6,929 in the intensive management group such as those aged 60 and above who are subject to health monitoring, and 49,790 in the general management group.

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