<Anchor>



The number of additional coronavirus cases has now reached 110,000.

It is expected that the number of patients will increase further in the future and it will take about a month to reach the peak.



Next is reporter Park Soo-jin.



<Reporter>



On December 1, last year, the first mutation of omicron was confirmed in Korea.



At that time, the number of confirmed cases was around 5,000.



After that, it took nearly two months to exceed 10,000, but it took less than a month to exceed 100,000, which is ten times that number.



The government expects that it will take another month or so before the outbreak peaks.



[Kim Bu-gyeom/Prime Minister: Like other countries, I think we have reached a stage that we have to go through at least once.

It is expected to peak around the end of February to mid-March.]



The number of patients with severe cases has increased to the late 300s, and although the utilization rate of intensive care beds is still stable, there is a clear increase.



The government said it was the latest forecast by experts, and said that by the 2nd of next month, 180,000 confirmed cases a day, and up to 2,500 people in severe cases.



[Lee Ki-il/Central Disaster Response Headquarters 1st Controller: Acquired 8,11 beds and achieved 115% (target beds).

(Severely severe patients) It seems to be possible for up to 2,500 people.]



However, in the medical field, the recent increase in critically ill patients is not unusual.



[Kim Deok-won / Gyeonggi-do Medical Center Suwon Hospital Medical Department Manager: These days, the most common occurrences are in nursing homes or nursing homes.

It's been 4 months since they've been vaccinated.

There was always a tendency to increase again around this time.]



The government decided to include patients with underlying diseases in their 40s in the prescription of Paxrovid from the 21st in order to reduce the progression of the high-risk group as much as possible.



In addition to lowering the age of medication, we are also considering ways to broaden the range of patients with underlying diseases.



(Video coverage: Park Young-il·Kim Min-cheol, Video editing: Lee So-young, CG: Kang Kyung-rim·Ryu Sang-soo)



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