<Anchor> There were



3,129 new confirmed cases of Corona 19, which fell to the 3,000 level in five weeks as of the outbreak on Sunday. The government emphasized the need for a new prevention strategy to respond to Omicron mutations, but the first case of death related to Omicron infection in Korea has emerged.



Correspondent Kim Deok-hyun.



<Reporter>



Yesterday (2nd), the number of severe cases of Corona 19 decreased by 9 from the previous day to 1,15.



Although 1,000 people have continued for the second week, quarantine authorities said on the 29th of last month that the number of new critically ill patients is also on the decline compared to the all-time high of 1,151.



There were 36 deaths.



There are 3,129 new confirmed cases, 2,993 of which are domestically infected, excluding 136 imported from abroad.



Based on the Sunday outbreak, the number fell to the 3,000 level for the first time in five weeks since the end of November last year.



There were no patients waiting for hospitalization for more than a day for six consecutive days as the shortage of beds was partially resolved, such as maintaining the 60% level for the fifth consecutive day in the metropolitan area.



Yesterday, 111 new cases of Omicron mutation were confirmed, bringing the total to 1,318.



The detection rate of Omicron compared to the confirmed cases was 8.8%, up 5.1%p from last week, and quarantine authorities predicted that it would become the dominant species in January and February.



Meanwhile, two deaths were confirmed for the first time in Korea related to Omicron infection.



The quarantine authorities said that a woman in her 90s who died at Chonnam National University Hospital on December 27 last year was confirmed as infected with Omicron three days later.



Separately, another patient in his 90s who died at Chonnam National University Hospital in Bitgoeul on the 29th of last month was also classified as a suspected case with high possibility of infection with Omicron.



These were patients at a nursing hospital in Gwangju, where the Omicron cluster infection occurred, and had completed the second dose of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines, respectively.