New COVID-19 Cases at 163,566 for Third Consecutive Day Over 160,000... Cumulative Total Nears 3 Million (Update)

49 Deaths · 663 Critically Ill Patients

Citizens are waiting for testing at the temporary COVID-19 screening site in front of Seoul City Hall. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] As the spread of the Omicron variant virus continues, the number of new COVID-19 confirmed cases has remained in the 160,000 range for three consecutive days.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced on the 27th at midnight that the number of new confirmed cases was 163,566, bringing the total confirmed cases to 2,994,841. The number of new confirmed cases decreased by 2,643 from the previous day (166,207 cases, initially announced as 166,209 cases and later corrected), but remained in the 160,000 range for three consecutive days.

This is 1.6 times higher compared to a week ago on the 20th (104,825 cases) and 2.9 times higher than two weeks ago on the 13th (56,410 cases). The health authorities expect the number of new confirmed cases to reach around 250,000 by mid-next month.

The number of critically ill patients increased by 20 from the previous day (643) to 663. As the number of new confirmed cases rises, the number of critically ill patients is also showing a steep increase.

The number of critically ill patients was in the 200s in mid-month but rose to the 400s on the 19th, the 500s on the 23rd, and after reaching the 600s the previous day, it has remained in the 600s for three consecutive days.

As of 5 p.m. the previous day, the utilization rate of severe care beds was 44.9% (1,214 out of 2,704 beds in use), up 0.9 percentage points from the previous day (44.0%). As of midnight, the number of patients under home treatment was 768,773, an increase of 65,079 from the previous day (703,694), approaching 800,000. Among them, 114,234 are in the intensive care group, including those aged 60 and over receiving health monitoring from home treatment management medical institutions, while the rest are in the general management group managing their health independently at home.

The number of deaths due to COVID-19 the previous day was 49. By age group, those aged 80 and over accounted for the most deaths at 28, followed by 13 in their 70s, 5 in their 60s, 2 in their 50s, and 1 in their 40s. The cumulative number of deaths is 7,944, with a cumulative fatality rate of 0.27%.

Regarding the infection routes of new confirmed cases, 163,414 were locally transmitted and 152 were imported cases. Among locally transmitted cases, Gyeonggi had 46,799, Seoul 35,286, and Incheon 11,129, with 93,214 cases (57.0%) coming from the metropolitan area alone.

Non-metropolitan areas reported 13,674 cases in Busan, 9,242 in Gyeongnam, 6,158 in Daegu, 5,950 in Chungnam, 5,377 in Gyeongbuk, 4,273 in Gwangju, 4,211 in Jeonbuk, 4,085 in Chungbuk, 4,046 in Daejeon, 3,409 in Jeonnam, 3,375 in Gangwon, 3,315 in Ulsan, 2,165 in Jeju, and 920 in Sejong, totaling 70,200 cases (43.0%). This is the first time that the number of confirmed cases in non-metropolitan areas has exceeded 70,000 since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea.

The total number of new confirmed cases, combining local transmission and imported cases (excluding quarantine), was 46,801 in Gyeonggi, 35,351 in Seoul, and 11,133 in Incheon. On the previous day, 367,766 integrated tests were conducted at screening clinics. The test positivity rate as of midnight was 30.7%.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 vaccination completion rate (percentage of those who have completed the basic vaccination) was 86.4% (a cumulative total of 44,358,392 people) as of midnight. The third dose vaccination rate reached 61.1% of the total population (a cumulative total of 31,352,874 people).

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