Via Yonhap, an update to last night's post just below: S. Korea reports all-time high of 549,854 daily COVID-19 cases. Excerpt and then a comment:
SEOUL, March 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea reported 549,854 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, setting a new daily record as the country battles through the worst wave of the virus sparked by the omicron variant.
The all-time high was reported as of 9 p.m., with three hours left until the daily tally ends. The total will be announced the following morning.
Seoul reported 128,385 cases, breaching 100,000-mark for the first time.
Earlier Wednesday, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said the country added 400,741 daily COVID-19 infections, mostly locally transmitted, raising the total caseload to 7,629,275.
It was an all-time high since South Korea reported the first COVID-19 case on Jan. 20, 2020, and a big jump from Tuesday's 362,338. The previous record high was 383,659 reported last Saturday.
The daily count differs from 441,423 reported by South Korean media last night quoting a private data tracker, as the number had not removed overlapping and erroneous data that appears to have been caused after the government began to allow virus tests conducted at local clinics as official results, the KDCA said.
The death toll from COVID-19 rose 164 to 11,052, with the fatality rate standing at 0.14 percent.
The number of critically ill patients, seen as a key indicator in the pandemic response, reached another record high of 1,244, up 48 from the previous day.
South Korea has seen its COVID-19 caseload spike since early this year, with the daily tallies surging from four digits to six digits in about three weeks last month.
Despite the fast spread of the omicron, the government has been trying to take steps to regain normalcy to the most possible extent while keeping up the fight against the virus.
The omicron wave is heading toward its peak, which will be a critical point in the fight against the virus, Sohn Young-rae, a senior health ministry official, said.
"If the peak is formed as predicted and the medical system can respond within the prepared range, I think this crisis will be the last major crisis in the overall response to COVID-19," Sohn said.
"Either this week or next week, at the latest, will be the peak," Sohn added.
On Saturday, South Korea hit a record number of cases with 383,664. On Tuesday, another record, the country saw 441,423. And now over half a million. I expect that in the next few weeks we will see a comparable spike in cases here in North America.
