Xinhua News Agency, Seoul, March 16 (Reporter Du Baiyu and Sun Yiran) South Korea’s Central Epidemic Prevention and Countermeasure Headquarters reported on the 16th that as of 0:00 on the 16th, South Korea’s new crown confirmed more than 400,000 new cases in a single day The number of newly confirmed cases in a single day has hit a new high since the outbreak in the country.
According to reports, South Korea reported 400,741 new confirmed cases of new crowns in a single day, with a total of 7.629 million confirmed cases; 164 new deaths and a total of 11,052 deaths. There are 1,244 severe cases, the most since the outbreak.
South Korean Prime Minister Kim Fu-gyeom presided over the epidemic prevention meeting on the 16th, saying that the number of cases in the past week accounted for more than 30% of the cumulative confirmed cases, and it was reaching the peak of the transmission of the Omicron virus strain. Experts predict the turning point of the epidemic will appear. The South Korean Central Epidemic Prevention Countermeasures Headquarters said on the 14th that the turning point of the current round of epidemics is expected to appear between the 16th and the 22nd.
The South Korean government will hold a meeting to assess the current epidemic prevention situation and discuss the adjustment of epidemic prevention measures. It is expected that the new version of epidemic prevention measures will be announced as early as the 18th. South Korean media predict that the government may further relax epidemic prevention measures. In this regard, some Korean medical experts expressed concern. Zheng Qishuo, a professor of respiratory medicine at Hallym University School of Medicine in South Korea, said in an interview with Yonhap News that it is best to maintain the current epidemic prevention measures until the inflection point of the epidemic occurs. Choi Jae-wook, a professor at the Department of Preventive Medicine at Korea University, also said that it is only appropriate to discuss relaxing epidemic prevention measures when the epidemic data peaks and shows a decreasing trend. (End)