<Anchor> The



number of severe cases of Corona came down to the 700 level in about a month, and the number of additional confirmed cases continued to the 3,000 level for the fourth day. However, the number of infected with the omicron mutation, which is highly contagious, more than doubled in one week. Authorities predicted that the Lunar New Year holiday would be a watershed, saying that Omicron will become the dominant species within this month.



This content was covered by reporter Park Soo-jin.



<Reporter>



The number of Omicron infections in Korea increased by 1,33 in one week to 2,351.



Last week, the number increased by 111 compared to the previous week, and the increase was nearly tenfold in just one week.



The diffusion rate of omicrons is significantly faster compared to delta mutations.



Delta took nearly three months to get more than 2,300 infections, while Omicron took only a month.



The quarantine authorities judge that it will become the dominant species within this month, even if it does not seem fast compared to the United States and the United Kingdom.



[Lee Sang-won / Head of Epidemiological Investigation and Analysis Team, Central Quarantine Countermeasures Headquarters: The spread of Omicron in Korea is now expected to proceed a little faster. By the end of January, it is evaluated as a state with a high probability of becoming dominant.]



There are two cases of Omicron's critical illness identified so far, all of whom are elderly people in their 70s who have completed vaccination.





[Kim Woo-joo/Professor of Infectious Diseases, Korea University Guro Hospital: It is fortunate that Omicron has a relatively lower severity than Delta, but if the absolute number of patients increases, even if the aggravation rate is low, it should not be

taken lightly.]

We believe it will be a watershed in the spread of Omicron, and we are preparing a countermeasure.



We plan to increase our daily PCR test capacity to a maximum of 850,000 and promote the distribution of rapid self-diagnosis kits that provide results within an hour.



The risk of COVID-19 across the country has been downgraded by two levels from 'very dangerous' to 'medium' in 7 weeks. will be announced.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol, video editing: Choi Eun-jin, CG: Seo Seung-hyun)



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