"New Confirmed Cases 150,000, Same Level as 2 Weeks Ago" … 487 Severe Cases · 52 Deaths (Update)

On the 17th, when the number of new COVID-19 cases surged to over 180,000, citizens were waiting for testing 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 Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] As the resurgence of COVID-19 is expected to peak this week and then decline, the number of new weekday cases recorded in the low 150,000s.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 23rd, as of midnight, the number of new COVID-19 cases increased by 150,258, bringing the total cumulative cases to 22,449,475.

The number of new cases on this day was 91,212 more than the previous day (59,046) and 66,155 more than a week ago on the 16th (84,103), increasing to about 1.8 times. However, since the number of diagnostic tests decreased during the Liberation Day holiday on the 16th, the number of confirmed cases was recorded lower, making direct comparison with this day’s figures difficult.

Instead, the number of new cases on the same day two weeks ago, the 9th (149,860), was similar with a difference of 398 cases, indicating that the downward trend in cases observed this week continued on this day as well.

Jeong Ki-seok, Chair of the National Infectious Disease Crisis Response Advisory Committee, explained at a briefing the day before, "(The number of confirmed cases) is expected to peak around this week and then gradually decrease."

From the 17th to this day, the number of new cases was 180,763 → 178,541 → 138,794 → 129,395 → 110,936 → 59,046 → 150,258, averaging 135,390 cases per day.

Among the new cases on this day, 504 were imported cases, 98 more than the previous day (406). Imported cases had been in the 300?400 range for the past four days but rose again to over 500 after five days.

The number of critically ill patients was 487, down 64 from the previous day (551). Among critically ill patients, 420 (86.2%) were aged 60 or older.

The number of deaths from COVID-19 the previous day was 52, 13 fewer than the day before (65). Among the deceased, 31 (59.6%) were aged 80 or older, 5 were in their 70s, 11 in their 60s, 2 each in their 50s and 40s, and 1 in their 30s. The cumulative death toll reached 26,161, with a cumulative fatality rate of 0.12%.

As of 5 p.m. the previous day, the occupancy rate of critically ill patient beds was 44.8% (820 out of 1,831 beds in use), down 2.2 percentage points from the previous day (47.0%). The occupancy rates for semi-critical beds and moderate beds were 59.8% and 45.0%, respectively, each down 0.9 and 1.1 percentage points from the previous day.

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