160,209 New COVID-19 Cases and 112 Deaths, Highest Ever Recorded (Comprehensive)

Severe Cases Decrease by 12 to 643
Home Treatment Patients Exceed 700,000

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 Lee Gwan-joo] The number of new COVID-19 cases reached the mid-160,000s amid the continued spread of the Omicron variant.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 26th, as of midnight, 166,209 new COVID-19 cases were reported, bringing the total to 2,831,283.

The number of new cases remained in the 160,000s for the second consecutive day. Compared to 102,206 cases reported a week ago on the 19th, this is 1.6 times higher, and three times the 54,938 cases reported two weeks ago on the 12th.

The number of critically ill patients rapidly increased but decreased by 12 from the previous day (655) to 643. The rise in new cases appears to have led to an increase in critically ill patients. 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 yesterday. This is the first time in 40 days since the 16th of last month that the number of critically ill patients has reached the 600s.

Accordingly, the nationwide COVID-19 severe bed occupancy rate also increased to the mid-40% range. The severe bed occupancy rate on this day was 44.0% (1,190 out of 2,704 beds in use), up 3.2 percentage points from the previous day (40.8%). Until early this month, the severe bed occupancy rate remained in the mid-teens percentage range, but it rose to the 30% range on the 19th when critically ill patients increased to the 400s, and surpassed 40% yesterday when the number reached the 600s.

The number of patients under home treatment reached 703,694, an increase of 53,513 from the previous day (650,181), entering the 700,000 range. Among them, 102,095 are in the intensive care group, including those aged 60 and above, who receive health monitoring from home treatment management medical institutions, while the rest are classified as the general management group who manage their health independently at home.

With the increase in critically ill patients, the number of deaths is also rising. As of this day, 112 COVID-19 deaths were reported, marking the highest number since the outbreak began. The cumulative death toll is 7,895, with a cumulative fatality rate of 0.28%.

Regarding the infection routes of new cases, 166,068 were locally transmitted, and 141 were imported cases. Among the locally transmitted cases, 48,147 were in Gyeonggi, 36,773 in Seoul, and 12,113 in Incheon, with 97,033 cases (58.4%) coming from the metropolitan area alone.

On the previous day, 528,139 integrated tests were conducted at screening clinics. As of midnight, the test positivity rate was 29.5%.

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