62,1328 New COVID-19 Cases... Deaths Also Surge to 429

1,159 Critical Patients, Critical Care Bed Occupancy Rate at 65.6%
Home Treatment Patients Also Nearing 2 Million at 1,925,759

On the 16th, as the spread of COVID-19 continued, citizens were waiting for tests at the screening clinic in front of Seoul City Hall. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The daily number of new COVID-19 cases surged by more than 220,000 in just one day, surpassing 600,000. The death toll also exceeded 400, marking an all-time high.

As of midnight on the 17th, the Central Disease Control Headquarters reported 621,328 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total cumulative cases to 8,250,592. This is an increase of 220,617 cases compared to the previous day (400,711 cases).

The rise in cases is attributed to an increase in testing as the week began, and from the 14th, positive results from professional rapid antigen tests at local clinics and hospitals have also been recognized as confirmed cases, leading to a sharp increase. Additionally, the inclusion of cases omitted due to a system error the previous day appears to have influenced the numbers.

The number of deaths more than doubled in one day, surging sharply. As of midnight, the death toll was 429, an increase of 265 from the previous day (164). The cumulative death toll stands at 11,481, with a cumulative fatality rate of 0.14%.

The number of critically ill patients was recorded at 1,159. Although this is 85 fewer than the previous day’s record high of 1,244, the number of critically ill patients has remained in the 1,000 range since the 8th.

As the number of critically ill patients increases, hospital bed occupancy rates are also rising. The total number of COVID-19 hospital beds is 52,410, with occupancy rates of 65.6% for critical care beds, 72.3% for semi-critical and moderate care beds, and 48.1% for mild to moderate care beds. The operation rate of residential treatment centers also exceeded 30%, reaching 30.8%.

The number of patients receiving home treatment approached 2 million. As of midnight, the current number of home-treated patients was 1,925,759. Among them, 285,070 are in the intensive management group, and 513,806 were newly classified as home-treated patients yesterday.

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