On the morning of the 16th, the waiting room of an otolaryngology department in downtown Seoul, which was designated as a designated medical institution for COVID-19 respiratory care, was filled with citizens who came to receive rapid antigen test and PCR test. yunhap news
As the Omicron epidemic reached its peak, as of 9 pm on the 16th, there were new confirmed cases of Corona 19, approaching 550,000. This is the first time that the number has exceeded 500,000, and it has already broken the highest number on a daily basis. In particular, by 6 pm, there were 340,000 people, but in just 3 hours, the number soared to over 200,000 exceptionally.
According to each local government, including Seoul, there were 549,854 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the country from 0 am to 9 pm that day. The previous record for the same time period was 441,423 the previous day.
What is unusual is that the number of confirmed cases surged after 6 pm. By 6 p.m. that day, the number was 345,184, about 30,000 fewer than the previous day. However, as the number of confirmed cases increased sharply after 6 p.m., as of 9 a.m., there were more than 100,000 more than the day before.
There are two possible reasons for the surge in the number of confirmed cases in the evening.
First, I heard ‘duplicate count’ and ‘system error’ as reasons for the decrease in the number of confirmed cases announced by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) as of 00:00 the previous night. However, an official from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) explained, “Since the final tally announced by the KCDC goes through comparative verification with the list submitted by the local government, it is difficult to believe that the real-time tally announced by the local government reflects the number of omissions due to system errors.”
If so, it is highly likely that the change was caused by the recognition of a positive result of the rapid antigen test for experts from the 14th. It is presumed that the number of confirmed cases in hospitals increased rapidly in a short period of time as the statistics of those who were confirmed at the hospital were registered at once before the hospital closed.
Therefore, as of 00:00 on the 17th, the number of confirmed cases could reach 600,000 if the current 550,000 people and the number of missing people the previous day are added. An official from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said, “Since there are a lot of duplicate cases in the count submitted by the local government after reflecting the expert rapid antigen test in the confirmation of the diagnosis, it will be somewhat reduced compared to the real-time count of the local government.”
As the number of confirmed cases increases, the size of the peak of the epidemic is also expected to increase. Son Yeong-rae, head of the social strategy division at the Central Accident Resolving Headquarters, explained, “The 370,000 predicted peak peak is a weekly average, and the actual number of confirmed cases per day can range from the early 300,000 to the mid-400,000.” However, assuming that the number of confirmed cases is 550,000 as of 00:00 on the 17th, the average daily number of confirmed cases for the past 7 days has already reached 377,000.
Kim Kyung-jun reporter ultrakj75@hankookilbo.com