New COVID-19 Cases 66,953... About 4,200 More Than Last Week (Update)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Byeon Seon-jin] The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced on the 16th at midnight that 66,953 new COVID-19 cases were added, bringing the total to 28,062,679.

The number of new cases on this day decreased by 3,201 from the previous day (70,154). It is 4,219 more than a week ago on the 9th (62,734). This is the highest number of cases on a Friday in 14 weeks since September 9 (69,391).

The number of critically ill patients hospitalized increased by 9 to 474 compared to the previous day.

There were 66 new COVID-19 related deaths reported. The cumulative death toll is 31,298, with a fatality rate of 0.11%.

As of midnight, the additional winter vaccination rate is 26.7% for those aged 60 and over, and 44.2% for infection-vulnerable facilities, which falls far short of the government’s targets of 50% and 60%, respectively.

Lee Sang-min, the 2nd Deputy Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) and Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, stated at the CDSCH meeting that "the average daily number of new cases this week is expected to be in the 60,000 range for the first time since the first week of September," adding, "notably, the detection rate of the BN.1 variant among the variants is rising significantly, and the rate of reinfections has been steadily increasing recently."

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