◀ anchor ▶
Today, the number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the number of deaths reached an all-time high once more.
Many of you must be anxious regarding how much longer the epidemic will last, and how many people will have to become infected for it to subside.
The variable is said to be in the hidden infection.
Reporter Park Yoon-soo reported.
◀ Report ▶
Today, the number of new COVID-19 cases reached 266,000, breaking the record once more in two days.
It reached the estimate five days earlier than the government forecast that there would be more than 230,000 confirmed cases around the 9th.
The government once more raised the forecast that it would peak around the middle of this month at a maximum of around 350,000.
[이기일/중앙재난안전대책본부 제1통제관]
“As a result of analysis by experts and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is expected that the peak will appear within the next two to three weeks.”
However, the variable is a ‘hidden infection’ that is not caught in the statistics.
It is estimated that the actual number of confirmed cases will more than double if you include ‘hidden infected people’ who do not know regarding the infection or do not get tested due to the Omicron epidemic with mild symptoms.
[정재훈/가천대 의대 예방의학과 교수]
“It seems to find regarding half (of all infected people), the system of our country. Even if you look at the world, I don’t think there is a country that detects more than half of it.”
For example, assuming that there are 200,000 confirmed cases every day and that many hidden infections, the cumulative number of confirmed cases is estimated to exceed 38% of the population following a month.
Overseas, the epidemic stopped following the number of confirmed cases exceeded 20-30% of the population, but in Korea, there is a possibility that the epidemic will be caught sooner as the vaccination rate is high.
[최재욱/고려대 의대 예방의학과 교수]
“There is a sufficient possibility that the epidemic will not end or subside only when more than 30% of the population (as in foreign countries) are infected, but that it will appear gently (descent) even in the previous stage.”
Until the peak is reached, the medical response posture is being reorganized in preparation for the increase in the number of confirmed cases.
Amid the record-high 186 deaths from coronavirus, the government recommended 731 long-term inpatients in quarantine beds to move to regular beds to improve bed efficiency.
In addition, it said that it would respond to the increase in patients with severe cases by sending 206 surgeons to intensive care.
This is Park Yoon-soo from MBC News.
Video coverage: Jung Woo-young / Video editing: Oh Yu-rim
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