New Confirmed Cases 59,046, Decrease from Previous Week... Severe Cases 551, Deaths 65 (Update)

On the 17th, when the number of new COVID-19 cases surged to over 180,000, citizens were waiting for tests at the screening clinic of Songpa-gu Public Health Center in Seoul. The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of midnight that day, there were 180,803 new COVID-19 cases. The number of confirmed cases nearly increased by 100,000 compared to the previous day as the holiday ended. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

On Monday, the number of new COVID-19 cases dropped to the 50,000 range, showing signs that the spread of the outbreak is somewhat calming down.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 22nd, as of midnight that day, 59,046 new COVID-19 cases were reported, bringing the total cumulative number of confirmed cases to 22,299,377.

The number of new cases is about half of the previous day’s figure (110,944) and 3,010 fewer than a week ago on the 15th (62,056). Typically, Mondays reflect a significant decrease in confirmed cases due to reduced testing over the weekend. The number is 3,790 higher than the cases reported two weeks ago on the 8th (55,256).

From the 16th to the 22nd, the daily new cases over the past week were 84,103 → 180,771 → 178,553 → 138,812 → 129,411 → 110,944 → 59,046, averaging 125,949 cases per day.

The number of critically ill patients was 551, 20 more than the previous day (531). Among the critically ill, 476 (86.4%) were aged 60 or older.

The number of deaths due to COVID-19 increased by 65, one more than the previous day (64). Among the deceased, 42 (64.6%) were aged 80 or older, 11 were in their 70s, 8 in their 60s, and 2 each in their 50s and 40s. The cumulative death toll to date is 26,109, with a cumulative fatality rate of 0.12%.

The numbers of critically ill patients and deaths tend to reflect the increase in confirmed cases with a lag of 1 to 2 weeks, so even if the outbreak calms and new cases decrease, these numbers are expected to remain high for some time.

As of 5 p.m. the previous day, the occupancy rate of critical care beds was 47.0% (847 out of 1,801 beds in use), up 1.7 percentage points from 45.3% the day before. The occupancy rates for semi-critical care beds and moderate care beds rose by 1.4 and 2.3 percentage points to 60.7% and 46.1%, respectively.

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