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number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 is about 68,000, and the spread is continuing.

The number of patients with severe severe cases also doubled from the previous week for two days in a row, so caution is needed.



Correspondent Jeong Seong-jin.



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Yesterday (22nd), there were 68,551 new cases of Corona 19.



This is a 1.66 times increase from a week ago, and about 70,000 new patients have been continuously occurring in the last five days.



The number of new patients, which remained below 10,000 until the end of June, continued to double for three weeks this month, showing a clear trend of spread.



Affected by the rapid increase in new confirmed cases, the number of patients with severe cases is also accelerating.



Yesterday, the number of severe cases of serious illness was counted at 140, the highest in 49 days.



It has doubled from the previous week for two days in a row, and the number of patients with severe cases of gastritis also appears to be doubling.



The utilization rate of intensive care beds nationwide was 18.9%, up 0.7 percentage points from the previous day.



There were also 30 deaths.



The BA.5 mutation is actually leading the spread as it has become the dominant species, and the BA.2.75 mutation, which is said to have greater contagious power than BA.5, has also been confirmed for the third infection in Korea.



[Sohn Young-rae / Head of Social Strategy Division, Central Accident Resolving Headquarters: In the case of BA.2.75, the infection has already been confirmed in the local community, so it is considered that the infection is slowly spreading around the local community.]



Known to have the strongest immune evasion The risk of re-infection is growing.



The increase is expected to continue for a while as large-scale movement is expected to increase nationwide during the summer holidays and holidays in late July and early August.