80,692 COVID-19 Reinfections... 3.72% of Weekly Confirmed Cases (Update)

Increase from 2.88% in the Previous Week

On the 26th, as 99,327 new COVID-19 cases were reported, approaching 100,000 for the first time in three months, citizens visiting the screening clinic set up at Mapo-gu Public Health Center in Seoul were waiting to get tested. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] It has been estimated that about 86,000 patients have been infected with COVID-19 more than twice.

On the 26th, the Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that among the 18,545,508 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of midnight on the 17th, there were 86,092 suspected reinfection cases, with an incidence rate of 0.464%.

Regardless of the presence or absence of symptoms, if a positive result is confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or professional rapid antigen test (RAT) 45 days after the initial confirmed date, it is considered a suspected reinfection case.

Secondary infections accounted for 85,973 cases, representing 99.9% of all reinfections. Tertiary infections numbered 119 cases (0.1%).

The 'weekly reinfection rate,' which is the proportion of suspected reinfection cases among confirmed cases over the past week, rose to 3.72%, up about 1.5 percentage points from the previous week (2.88). This means that 3 to 4 out of every 100 confirmed cases were reinfections. The weekly reinfection rate slightly decreased from 2.94% in the fourth week of last month to 2.86% in the fifth week, then rose again to 2.88% in the first week of this month.

Reinfection cases have been more frequent since the Omicron variant spread. Before the Omicron wave, prior to December 2021, the reinfection rate was 0.10%, with 546 reinfections among 547,916 confirmed cases during that period. Since January of this year, during the Omicron wave, the reinfection rate is estimated at 0.47%, with 85,427 reinfections among 17,997,592 confirmed cases.

According to previously released data on reinfection cases by age group from health authorities, reinfections were more common among younger age groups. From January 2020 to the 9th of this month, 25,569 children and adolescents aged 17 and under were reinfected with COVID-19, accounting for 33.2% of the total 70,792 reinfections. The 18-29 age group had 14,818 cases (19.2%), the second highest after children and adolescents, while those aged 75 and older had the fewest cases at 3,080 (4.0%).

Among tertiary infections, those aged 17 and under were also the most numerous. Of the total 108 cases, 51 (47.2%) were aged 17 and under. The 18-29 age group had 23 cases, 30-39 had 10, 40-49 had 5, 50-59 had 4, 60-74 had 9, and those 75 and older had 6 cases.

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