South Korea Ranks 5th Worldwide in Weekly COVID-19 Cases... Daily Cases Exceed 100,000

WHO COVID-19 Dashboard Weekly Cases Rank 5
Death Rate Relatively Low but Risk Factor for Severe Cases Increase

Citizens waiting to be tested at a screening clinic set up at Mapo-gu Public Health Center in Seoul on the 26th. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] The number of new COVID-19 cases has exceeded 100,000 for the first time in over three months. The cumulative number of cases over the past week ranks among the top five worldwide.

On the 27th, the Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight, the number of new COVID-19 cases was 100,285, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 19,446,946. This is the first time in 98 days since April 20 (111,291 cases) that daily cases have surpassed 100,000. Compared to a week earlier on the 20th (76,379 cases), it is approximately 1.31 times higher.

South Korea's COVID-19 case count has entered the global top ranks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 dashboard as of the previous day, South Korea recorded 459,485 cumulative cases over the past week, ranking fifth highest. The top spot is held by Japan, where the number of cases recently has exceeded those during the Omicron wave earlier this year. Japan's weekly cumulative cases stand at 1,038,139.

Considering population size, South Korea's scale of infections is relatively large. Comparing the top five countries by weekly cumulative cases (Japan, Germany, United States, Italy, South Korea) by cases per 100,000 population, South Korea leads with 876.22 cases. Italy follows with 862.16 cases, and Japan with 820.82 cases.

South Korea's death rate is low relative to the scale of confirmed cases. Over the past week, the COVID-19 death rate per 100,000 population in South Korea was 0.27, ranking 25th among countries with populations over one million.

However, the continuous increase in the number of critically ill patients domestically is a risk factor. Typically, an increase in confirmed cases leads to a rise in critically ill and death cases 2 to 3 weeks later. From the 20th over the past week, the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients rose rapidly from 96 → 107 → 130 → 140 → 146 → 144 → 168, reaching 177 on the day, the highest in 56 days. About 50% of these patients are elderly aged 80 or older, who are at high risk of death.

The health authorities are actively recommending prescriptions of therapeutics and vaccination to prevent severe illness and death. Im Sook-young, head of the Central Disease Control Headquarters Situation Management Team, emphasized, "Among the COVID-19 deaths last week, 91% were aged 60 or older. Although the proportion of unvaccinated and first-dose vaccinated individuals among the population aged 60 and above is only about 4%, approximately 41% of deaths in this age group were among the unvaccinated and first-dose vaccinated."

Jeong Kyung-ran, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said the day before, "Protecting the safety and lives of the people in disaster situations is the nation's foremost responsibility." She added, "We will focus resources and administrative efforts on protecting vulnerable groups with high infection risk or disease burden during the resurgence, and will make every effort in tailored quarantine measures such as securing therapeutics and hospital beds and special management of vulnerable facilities." The statement with the Korean Medical Association included efforts to secure COVID-19 therapeutics and improve procedures for easier prescriptions.

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