New Confirmed Cases 95,362 ... Severe Cases 480 · Home Treatment Approaching 470,000 (Update)

45 Deaths from COVID-19 Yesterday... Total 7,450 Cases

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 Mun Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] With the Omicron variant pandemic surging, around 100,000 new COVID-19 cases have been reported daily even on weekends, pushing the total number of confirmed cases in South Korea beyond 2 million.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 21st, as of midnight that day, the number of new COVID-19 cases nationwide increased by 95,362, bringing the cumulative total to 2,058,184.

The number of new cases had exceeded 100,000 for three consecutive days since the 18th but slightly decreased on this day. However, considering that testing volume typically drops on Sundays, this figure represents the highest ever recorded. Compared to 54,615 cases reported a week ago on the 14th, the current number is 1.7 times higher, and compared to 35,281 cases two weeks ago on the 7th, it is 2.7 times greater.

Accordingly, the cumulative number of confirmed cases has surpassed 2 million. The total number of confirmed cases exceeded 1 million on the 6th of this month, 749 days (2 years and 17 days) after the first confirmed case was reported in South Korea on January 20, 2020. Following this, daily new cases rapidly increased to the 40,000 range on the 9th, 50,000 range on the 10th, 90,000 range on the 16th, and over 100,000 on the 18th, resulting in an additional 1 million confirmed cases in just half a month.

The number of critically ill patients, which had been maintained in the 200s earlier this month, has approached the 500 mark. Since exceeding 300 on the 14th, the number of critically ill patients rose to 389 on the 17th, 408 on the 19th, 439 on the 20th, and reached 480 on this day. This is the highest figure in a month since 488 on the 20th of last month.

Consequently, the nationwide COVID-19 severe bed occupancy rate rose by 2.9 percentage points from 32.5% the previous day to 35.4%, with 943 out of 2,664 beds in use.

The number of deaths reported the previous day was 45, bringing the total death toll to 7,450. The cumulative fatality rate stands at 0.36%. 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 further to 309 last week (February 13?19).

Regarding the infection routes of new cases, 95,218 were locally transmitted, and 144 were imported. Among the locally transmitted cases, 26,777 were in Gyeonggi, 19,957 in Seoul, and 7,362 in Incheon, with the metropolitan area accounting for 56.8% (52,096 cases) of the total.

Similar to the number of new confirmed cases, the number of patients receiving home treatment is also showing a weekly doubling phenomenon. As of midnight on this day, the number of home treatment patients was 469,384, more than double (2.02 times) the 232,086 reported a week ago on the 14th. Compared to 146,445 patients two weeks ago on the 7th, it is about 3.21 times higher.

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