Daily Covid cases fall below 80,000 while number of critical cases up

Umbrellas in hand, people line up in front of a Covid-19 testing center in front of Seoul Station in Jung District, central Seoul on Sunday afternoon. [NEWS1]

The total number of Covid-19 patients in critical condition in Korea hit a two-month high over the weekend even as newly confirmed daily Covid-19 cases fell below 80,000 for the first time in a week, health authorities said Sunday.

Korea reported 73,589 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, including 341 from overseas, bringing the country’s cumulative total number of infections to 19,776,050, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The daily count of new infections has fallen steadily since Wednesday.

The number of new Covid-19 infections on Sunday is higher than the 65,373 new cases recorded on Sunday a week earlier, which itself was a doubling of cases over two weeks driven by the highly contagious omicron subvariant BA.5.

Amid the resurgence of Covid-19 infections, the number of patients in critical condition has risen to a two-month high of 284, up from 242 on Saturday.

That number is the highest figure since May 18, when the number of seriously ill patients stood at 313.

The KDCA reported 20 Covid-19 related deaths, bringing the country’s death toll to 25,047.

Earlier, the KDCA revised its prediction for the peak of the current wave of infections from 300,000 daily infections down to 200,000, taking into account the weaker-than-expected spread of the BA.5 omicron subvariant and the lower transmissibility of the new BA.2.75 Centaurus variant.

“The forecast made two to three weeks ago was close to the worst case scenario possible,” said Jung Jae-hun, a professor of preventive medicine at Gachon University, during a press briefing by the KDCA on Thursday. “It will be difficult to reach an average of 300,000 infections.”

Jung said one reason may be the high number of people who received four doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, which is “much higher than expected.”

As of Thursday, the rate of people 60 or older who had four shots was 41 percent, according to KDCA data.

The government has said it will not reintroduce stronger social distancing and business hour restrictions in response to the resurgence, saying the medical system is capable of handling the ongoing wave.

But critics say the government could do more to more accurately track and treat the new wave of infections.

They have pointed to growing numbers of people avoiding virus tests after the government in April stopped paying for free rapid antigen tests at state-run testing centers, which cost about 5,000 won ($3.83) for those with symptoms but 50,000 won for those without.

President Yoon Suk-yeol has said that health authorities should set up more testing centers and ramp up support to mitigate high testing costs.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]