"Domestic Cases Surpass 2 Million After 2 Years and 1 Month" ... COVID-19 Cumulative Confirmed Cases Exceed 2 Million

93,260 New Cases Nationwide by 9 PM on the 20th
Omicron Spread Causes Cumulative Cases to Surge from 1 Million to 2 Million in Half a Month

On the 18th, when the number of new COVID-19 cases exceeded 100,000 for the first time in history, citizens lined up to get tested at the screening clinic of Songpa-gu Public Health Center in Seoul. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] With the Omicron variant surge, more than 100,000 new confirmed cases have been reported daily even over the weekend, pushing the total number of COVID-19 cases in South Korea past 2 million. This milestone comes 2 years and 1 month after the first confirmed case in January 2020.

According to local governments nationwide on the 21st, from midnight to 9 p.m. the previous day, 93,260 people across 17 cities and provinces were confirmed positive for COVID-19.

This figure is 7,252 fewer than the record high of 100,512 cases reported during the same time frame on the 19th, but it is 1.9 times higher than the 53,390 cases recorded at the same time on the 13th, and 3.6 times higher compared to 27,710 cases on the 6th.

Since there is still time until midnight when the daily count is finalized, the total number of new cases for the day is expected to rise further to the high 90,000s.

Accordingly, the cumulative confirmed cases announced on the 21st will exceed 2 million. As of midnight on the 20th, the total confirmed cases stood at 1,962,837, but adding the cases counted until 9 p.m. on the 21st, the total has already surpassed 2 million, reaching over 2.05 million.

The cumulative case count surpassed 1 million on the 6th of this month, 749 days (2 years and 17 days) after the first domestic case was confirmed on January 20, 2020. Since then, daily new cases rapidly increased from 40,000 on the 9th, 50,000 on the 10th, 90,000 on the 16th, to over 100,000 on the 18th, resulting in an additional 1 million cases in just half a month.

The number of critically ill patients, which had been in the 200s earlier this month, exceeded 300 on the 14th, then rose to 389 on the 17th, 408 on the 19th, and 439 on the 20th. Deaths increased sharply from 146 in the first week of February (January 30?February 5) to 187 in the second week (February 6?12), and surged to 309 last week (February 13?19).

The number of patients under home treatment rose from the 30,000s on January 25 to 300,000 on the 17th of this month, nearly a tenfold increase, then to 350,000 on the 18th, 400,000 on the 19th, and surpassed 450,000 the day before.

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