160,590 New COVID-19 Cases ... 655 Severe Cases · 650,000 Home Treatments (Update)

Severe cases drop to 600s after 40 days... 94 deaths reported yesterday

On the 25th, citizens are waiting for tests at the temporary COVID-19 screening site in front of Seoul City Hall. According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, as of midnight on the same day, the number of new confirmed cases increased by 165,890, bringing the total to 2,665,077. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] As the spread of the Omicron variant approaches its peak, the daily number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in the mid-160,000s.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 25th, as of midnight, the number of new COVID-19 cases increased by 165,890, bringing the cumulative total to 2,665,077.

The number of new cases had been in the 170,000s for two consecutive days but dropped by 4,126 from the previous day (170,016) to fall back into the 160,000s. Compared to a week ago on the 18th (109,820 cases), this is 1.5 times higher, and compared to two weeks ago on the 11th (53,920 cases), it is 3.1 times higher.

The number of critically ill patients is also rapidly increasing. As of this day, the number of critically ill patients hospitalized was 655, up 74 from the previous day (581). The number of critically ill patients, which had remained in the 200s until mid-month, rose to the 400s on the 19th, the 500s on the 23rd, and reached the 600s on this day. It has been 40 days since the number of critically ill patients reached the 600s, last occurring on the 16th of last month.

Accordingly, the nationwide COVID-19 severe bed utilization rate also increased to the 40% range. The severe bed utilization rate on this day was 40.8% (1,096 out of 2,688 beds in use), up 1.7 percentage points from the previous day (39.1%). Until early this month, the severe bed utilization rate remained in the mid-teens percentage, but as the number of critically ill patients increased to the 400s on the 19th, it rose to the 30% range, and with the increase to the 600s on this day, it surpassed the 40% mark.

The number of patients under home treatment was 651,181, an increase of 62,483 from the previous day (587,698), reaching the mid-600,000s. Among them, 92,751 are in the intensive management group, including those aged 60 and over receiving health monitoring from home treatment management medical institutions, while the rest are classified as the general management group managing their health independently at home.

With the increase in critically ill patients, the number of deaths is also rising. On the previous day alone, 94 people died, bringing the total number of deaths to 7,783, with a cumulative fatality rate of 0.29%.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum explained in his opening remarks at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting that "many experts predict that the outbreak will peak around mid-March, and the daily number of new cases at the peak is expected to be around 250,000."

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