<Anchor>
Today (3rd), the number of new corona cases is expected to be around 1,100. Although the spread of the virus has slowed down recently, the quarantine authorities do not expect the number of confirmed cases to decrease rapidly.
Reporter Park Soo-jin.
<Reporter> This
is a nursing hospital in Gangseo-gu, Seoul.
After one patient in the hospital was confirmed on the 30th of last month, 10 additional patients and workers have been infected so far.
Seven of the confirmed patients were vaccinated, and six of them were breakthrough infections that occurred more than two weeks after the completion of the vaccination.
Delta mutation infection is under investigation.
[Bakyumi / Seoul Citizens Health Commissioner: were several people use the room with the patient, some are investigating reports that the masks worn by the lack or propagate into contact during dialysis and rehabilitation]
non-metropolitan areas and spread Sega metropolitan somewhat slowed last two weeks also slightly decreased.
However, the quarantine authorities judge that it is too early to be relieved due to the nature of the fourth epidemic, which is led by the highly contagious delta mutation and the holiday season, which spreads quickly.
In fact, the infection reproduction index, which indicates how many people a confirmed person infects, is over 1, and the number of patients with severe cases has continued to increase in the past 4 weeks.
[Jung Eun-kyung/Director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Because there are situations like this that have been occurring for several months, we believe that it will be difficult to reduce the number of confirmed patients very quickly.]
While the 4th step in the metropolitan area and the 3rd step in the non-metropolitan area are ending this Sunday, the quarantine authorities plan to decide whether to extend the phase or strengthen the quarantine measures while monitoring the progress this week.