Credit South Korea CDC COVID Dashboard
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While Omicron has made inroads into South Korea, by all accounts Delta remains dominant there, and has sparked a big jump in cases since early December (see Dec 8th South Korea Sets Another Record For Daily COVID Cases (n=7,142)) forcing them to Reinstate Social Distancing Restrictions a week ago.
On December 15th, South Korea reported their largest daily total of new cases (n=7,850) to date. South Korea has also reported significant increases in hospitalizations, and deaths during the month of December.
In the normal scheme of things, hospitalizations generally occur in COVID cases 10 to 14 days post-infection - and given the ability of modern medical treatment to prolong life - death (if it is going to happen) often doesn't occur until 2 or 3 weeks later.
On November 30th, South Korea reported 661 people hospitalized with severe COVID, and 34 deaths. Total COVID deaths stood at 3624.
Today the total number of deaths has risen to 4906, a 35% jump in just over 3 weeks (see JHU CSSE chart below).
We also see a rise in daily hospitalizations and a record number of severe hospitalizations (n=1,063) in the South Korean CDC's latest update. This represents an increase of roughly 60% in severe cases hospitalized over Nov. 30th.
While the eyes of the world are increasingly on Omicron, Delta continues to take its toll around the globe.
