COVID-19 New Cases 490,881... Total 10.43 Million

On the morning of the 23rd, citizens are lining up and waiting to get tested at the temporary COVID-19 screening clinic set up at Seoul Station Plaza. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The daily new COVID-19 cases increased by 490,000, pushing the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases beyond 10 million. This means that one in five citizens has either tested positive for or experienced COVID-19.

On the 23rd, the Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 490,881 to reach 10,427,247. It has been 793 days since the first confirmed case on January 20, 2020, to surpass 10 million cases. Notably, about 9.8 million of these cases were confirmed this year alone due to the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

Compared to the previous day, confirmed cases increased by 136,901, and compared to the same day last week (400,666), cases rose by 90,215, indicating that the spread continues.

The number of critically ill patients hospitalized is 1,184, which is 20 fewer than the previous day. However, since surpassing 1,000 patients on the 8th with 1,007 patients, the number has remained above 1,000 for 16 consecutive days. As of midnight, the COVID-19 severe bed occupancy rate nationwide was 64.4%, 61.2% in the metropolitan area, and 71.9% in non-metropolitan areas, slightly down from the previous day.

With the increase in new confirmed cases, the number of patients under home treatment slightly increased. As of midnight, there are 1,827,031 patients under home treatment. Among them, 271,851 are in the intensive management group. On the previous day, 442,576 people were newly classified as home treatment patients, exceeding the number of those released from home treatment, resulting in a slight increase in the total number of home treatment subjects.

The number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 291. However, despite the rapid increase in confirmed cases, the cumulative fatality rate remains at about 0.13%.

The infection route of new confirmed cases shows 490,839 cases from local transmission. In the metropolitan area, Seoul reported 101,133 cases, Gyeonggi 136,912 cases, and Incheon 24,941 cases, totaling 262,986 cases (53.6%). Non-metropolitan confirmed cases include ▲Busan 26,062 ▲Daegu 20,866 ▲Gwangju 12,185 ▲Daejeon 14,526 ▲Ulsan 11,031 ▲Sejong 3,452 ▲Gangwon 14,319 ▲Chungbuk 16,655 ▲Chungnam 18,877 ▲Jeonbuk 15,905 ▲Jeonnam 15,430 ▲Gyeongbuk 20,784 ▲Gyeongnam 32,109 ▲Jeju 5,571, totaling 227,853 cases (46.4%). There were 42 imported cases.

Meanwhile, the domestic COVID-19 vaccination completion rate recorded 87.6% (44,934,142 cumulative) as of midnight. The third dose vaccination rate reached 63.2% of the total population (32,449,020 cumulative).

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