COVID-19 New Cases 210,716... Severe Cases Near 1,000

955 Critical Patients and 139 Deaths
Government "Operating Bed Inspection TF"

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] As the Omicron variant spreads, the number of new daily confirmed cases has exceeded 200,000 for consecutive days, and the number of critically ill patients is also approaching 1,000. Given that critically ill patients typically lag behind confirmed cases by 2 to 3 weeks, concerns are rising that a shortage of hospital beds will become a reality by the end of this month.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight on the 7th, there were 210,716 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 4,666,977. This figure is 32,912 fewer than the previous day (243,628), which is believed to be due to reduced testing over the weekend.

The number of critically ill patients exceeded 900 for the first time on this day. As of midnight, the number of critically ill patients was 955, an increase of 70 from the previous day (885). The number of critically ill patients had remained in the 200s until mid-last month but has been increasing, reaching the 400s on the 19th, 500s on the 23rd, 600s on the 25th, 700s on the 28th, and 800s on the 5th of this month.

The number of deaths was 139, down 22 from the previous day (161), with a cumulative death toll of 9,096 and a cumulative fatality rate of 0.19%.

Accordingly, the bed occupancy rate is also rising. The total number of COVID-19 hospital beds is 49,018, with occupancy rates of 59.8% for critically ill beds, 64.5% for semi-critical beds, and 49.3% for moderate severity beds. The operation rate of residential treatment centers is 24.4%. The occupancy rate for critically ill beds increased by 3.4 percentage points from the previous day, semi-critical beds by 3.1 percentage points, moderate severity beds by 2.7 percentage points, and residential treatment centers by 1.6 percentage points.

The number of patients under home treatment has also surpassed 1.15 million. As of midnight, the number of home treatment patients was 1,156,185. Among them, 181,939 are in the intensive management group, and 226,894 were newly classified as home treatment patients yesterday.

The government maintains that the medical system is still operating within a manageable range. Kwon Deok-cheol, First Deputy Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (Minister of Health and Welfare), emphasized in his opening remarks at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting that "Although the recent daily average number of confirmed cases has reached 200,000, causing great public anxiety and concern, the occupancy rates of intensive care beds and moderate severity beds are 59.8% and 49.3%, respectively, indicating that the medical system is operating within a manageable range." He added, "We will continuously improve the bed system by forming a government-wide bed inspection task force (TF) involving the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Office for Government Policy Coordination."

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