<Anchor> The



number of new coronavirus cases approached 150,000, the highest in four months.

It is close to the peak size of the outbreak that the government has revised slightly lower, but the spread is still there and the number of re-infections is increasing rapidly while spending the holiday season.



This is reporter Kim Deok-hyeon.



<Reporter>



At the beginning of last month, when the epidemic was in its early stages, the average daily number of confirmed cases was around 15,000.



A month later, last week, the number more than sixfold increased to 97,000.



It's the most since mid-April at the end of the Omicron pandemic, and it's already close to the peak the government fixed last week.



[Lee Sang-won / Bang Dae-bon, head of the Epidemiological Investigation and Analysis Team (last 4 days): Even if it increases, it is expected to be about 150,000 to 190,000, or about 150,000 if we consider the median value.



The quarantine authorities believed that the spread of the virus could be bigger and longer in the future.



[Lim Sook-young/Bang Dae-bon situation manager: Due to the holiday season, social movement and contact are becoming more frequent.

At the same time, the increase appears to be somewhat larger...

.]



Another factor of anxiety is that the proportion of those aged 60 and over among the confirmed cases exceeded 20%.



Reducing the severity and mortality rates of high-risk groups is a priority.



[Jeong Jae-hoon/Professor of Preventive Medicine, Gachon University College of Medicine: The prescription rate (to eat treatment) is much lower than expected (to 17.9% of the elderly).

In the case of LaGebrio, there are not many contraindicated drugs.

Reducing the time from diagnosis to administration is the most important thing.]



The domestic detection rate of the BA.5 mutation, which has high immune evasion, increased to 75.2% last week.



Due to the spread of the mutation, the estimated number of re-infection among confirmed patients has risen from 3% in the middle of last month to over 5% since then.



The government urged people over the age of 50 to get the third and fourth doses, saying that the risk of reinfection decreases as the number of vaccinations increases.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol, video editing: Park Ji-in)