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The number of new confirmed cases recorded 200,000 for four days in a row.

The number of critically ill patients is rapidly increasing, approaching 1,000, and there are concerns that this trend will put a significant burden on the medical system in the next two to three weeks.



Reporter Jeong Da-eun reports.



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death toll increased by 139 and the number of people in critical condition increased by 70 to 955.



Last week, an average of 761 cases of severe serious illness per day, an increase of 1.4 times compared to the previous week.

This is the fourth consecutive week of growth.



[Jung Eun-kyung / Director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The number of confirmed cases has increased 36 times in 6 weeks.

However, due to the low severity of the Omicron mutation and the high vaccination rate, the number of cases of severe cases and deaths has increased by 3.6 times.]



Health and medical groups are pointing out that there is a problem with the government's counting of critically ill patients.



Critical corona patients are transferred to a general ward after 7 days of quarantine treatment, and from this point on, they are treated as general patients and are excluded from severe coronavirus patients.



It is said that the nationwide corona critical care bed utilization rate is 59.8%, but the actual number of beds in use due to the corona is much more.



If the peak of the epidemic is prolonged, there is also an analysis that the medical burden caused by the severe cases will increase and last longer.



[Jeong Ki-seok/Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital: If there are 200,000 (the number of confirmed cases per day), there will be about 300 to 400 serious patients a day.

If the number does not fall below 200,000, a significant medical system paralysis is expected in the field within two to three weeks.]



The fatality rate of the Omicron mutation announced by the quarantine authorities was 0.09% in the third week of last month, down to the level of seasonal flu.



However, the unvaccinated population was 0.6%, six times higher than the seasonal flu.



Last week, the number of confirmed cases per 100,000 people was the highest among those aged 0-9 who were not vaccinated.



The quarantine authorities will announce the detailed vaccination plan for children aged 5 to 11 on Monday next week.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol, Video editing: Kim Jong-mi)



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