<Anchor>
Today (14th), the number of new corona cases is expected to be in the mid-to-late 50,000s.
As each day goes by, the number of confirmed cases is at its highest, and there is even a forecast that it could reach 100,000 this week.
The number of home care workers also exceeded 200,000.
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.
As the sales of self-test kits were limited to 5 per person, they are packaged and sold 5 each.
[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', so I come to the pharmacy and buy it.]
The number of new corona19 confirmed cases was 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 are up to 200,000 confirmed cases.]
In order to minimize damage to Omicron, the government is planning to treat quickly, focusing on high-risk confirmed cases.