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There were a little more than 20,000 new confirmed cases.

According to yesterday (8th) and today's announcement, the number of confirmed cases has slightly increased from a week ago, but there are concerns that the scale of the epidemic will not decrease further here and that it may enter a plateau early. 



Reporter Park Soo-jin reports. 



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As the number of holiday tests decreased, the number of new confirmed cases decreased to 20,601, but increased by 525 compared to a week ago.



The number of confirmed cases of 4,64 the previous day was also an increase of 2,300 compared to the previous week.



As of Monday's announcement, it was the first time in eight weeks since March 14 that the number of confirmed cases increased compared to the previous week.



Just last week, the government predicted that the current decline in the epidemic would continue for more than a month.

[Lee Sang-won/Director of Epidemiological



Investigation and Analysis Team, Central Quarantine Countermeasure Headquarters (last 3 days): I think the trend of (fashion) decline will continue for more than a month.] 



However, signs of stagnant decline appeared earlier than expected. 



[Jeong Ki-seok/Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital: Relying only on RAT (rapid antigen test), but because of its low sensitivity, there will be a lot of hidden patients.] 



In a situation where there is still a risk of a resurgence due to the spread of the Omicron sub mutation like in the United States and South Africa, there are also analyzes that it has had an effect on easing of quarantine measures such as distancing and removing the wearing of outdoor masks, and even the stepping stone holidays. 



[Kim Woo-joo/Professor of Infectious Diseases, Korea University Guro Hospital: As outdoor masks were removed, it became a signal, and as many people moved, gathered and contacted, it is now the cause of the increase in the spread of infection. 



] Although it is necessary to look at the situation this week, I thought that the small-scale trend would continue until this fall. 



The government will announce tomorrow whether the measures to recognize positive results of rapid antigen tests at hospitals as confirmed will be extended again. 



(Video editing: Hojin Kim, CG: Dongmin Seo)