<Anchor>
Today (13th) also recorded the highest number of new corona19 confirmed cases in the 50,000 range for four days in a row.
The number of home care workers also exceeded 200,000 for the first time.
Starting today, online sales of Corona self-test kits will be stopped and you can buy them at pharmacies and convenience stores, but you can only purchase up to 5 per person.
This is reporter Jo Yoon-ha.
<Reporter> This
is a pharmacy in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul.
There are 5 self-test kits for COVID-19 on display.
Starting today, the sale of self-test kits is limited to 5 per person, so 5 are packaged and sold.
[Mr. Kim / Buyer of self-test kit: I think I saw the news to prepare a self-diagnosis kit.
I thought, 'I need to prepare a little for this'.
It's Sunday, but I'm coming to the pharmacy to buy it.]
The number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases is 56,431, exceeding 50,000 for the fourth day.
As the number of asymptomatic and mild cases has increased due to the spread of Omicron mutation, the number of patients treated at home also exceeded 200,000 for the first time.
Of these, 106,000, or about half, are monitored twice a day.
General patients who were managed before the introduction of the new home treatment system are also included.
There were 288 patients with severe cases, 200 for more than two weeks, and the utilization rate of critically ill beds was 18.7%, which is still a stable situation.
However, the number of patients over the age of 60 has more than doubled in one week, and it is a worrying factor that the proportion of the total number of confirmed patients is gradually increasing.
[Jeong Jae-hoon/Professor of Preventive Medicine, Gachon University College of Medicine: I expect that it will take at least 2-3 weeks until the peak of the epidemic is reached.
There is a possibility that there will be up to 200,000 confirmed cases.] The
government is planning to treat quickly, focusing on high-risk confirmed cases to minimize damage to Omicron.
(Video coverage: Kim Yong-woo, video editing: Won-hee Won)