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There were 31,000 new confirmed cases of Corona 19 yesterday (17th).

As of Wednesday, it was the smallest number in 15 weeks.

The government has decided to prepare ventilation guidelines for each facility, focusing on education and care facilities such as kindergartens and schools.



Reporter Park Soo-jin reports.



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There were 31,352 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 yesterday, and the number has risen to 30,000 for two days in a row.



As of Wednesday, the number is the lowest in 15 weeks since 22,267 on February 2.



There were 313 cases of severe serious illness, 31 people died, and 23,802 people have died from Corona 19 so far.



The number of new confirmed cases has been on the decline for eight consecutive weeks, but the decline is slowly slowing down.



New mutations are also being discovered in Korea, and yesterday, one BA.4 case and two BA.5 cases, which are spreading rapidly in South Africa, were first confirmed yesterday.



[Lee Sang-won / Head of Epidemiological Investigation and Analysis Team, Central Quarantine Countermeasures Headquarters: It is estimated that the detection rate is faster than BA.2, but there is no evidence that it affects the severity.



] Initiate large-scale antibody investigations for risk assessment.



Residents of 17 cities and provinces across the country will be surveyed by 10,000 people every quarter.



We also decided to prepare ventilation guidelines for indoor air quality management in kindergartens, daycare centers, and schools.



[Lee Ki-il / Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare: Air purifiers are installed in schools and kindergartens.

However, the virus removal function is still weak.

We will prepare guidelines to support the installation of air purifiers.]



The government will also form an expert-centered independent committee to establish a scientific quarantine system, and create a Corona Big Data platform to link patient and medical information by the end of this year. said.



Meanwhile, Baek Kyung-ran, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, took office this morning and started his duties.