<Anchor>



Today (17th), as of 9:00 pm a little while ago, the number of confirmed cases has already exceeded 100,000.

Accordingly, the number of confirmed cases to be announced tomorrow will exceed 100,000 for the first time, the highest number ever.

Also, as the number of critically ill patients is also increasing, opinions within the government are conflicting as to whether to loosen the current distance a little or maintain it for the time being.



This is reporter Jeong Da-eun.



<Reporter> The



government predicted on the 7th that 'up to 170,000 confirmed cases per day by the end of this month'.



A faster-than-expected explosion, with 90,000 people staying for two days in a row, they are sparing their words.

[Lim Sook-young / Head of the Central Quarantine Countermeasure



Headquarters: The uncertainty about the peak of the epidemic is very high, so it is difficult to determine the exact time or the exact size.]



Prospects came from academia.



[Sim Eun-ha / Professor of Mathematics, Soongsil University: In Korea, it took 7 weeks for Omicron to become a dominant species, so I am guessing that it will take similarly to the peak…

.]



The sharp increase in the number of confirmed cases is leading to an increase in the number of patients with severe cases.



The number increased by 76 in one day to 389, the highest in three weeks.



The government was confident that it could handle up to 2,000 seriously ill patients, saying that only 28.5% of the critically ill beds were occupied.



Ahead of the announcement of the distance adjustment plan tomorrow, he emphasized that seriousness, death, and management of the medical system are more important than the size of the confirmed case.



At the meeting of the Daily Recovery Support Association, the two opinions clashed with each other, let's solve it immediately and keep it for a while.



A government official said in a phone call with SBS, "Private gatherings were weighted from 6 to 8 people, and business hours were until 10 pm, but now we are considering extending the business hours only to 10 pm."



(Video editing: Lee So-young)