The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 has surged alarmingly, increasing 1.8 times in just one week. Notably, compared to a month ago, the number has soared by a staggering 5.8 times. Quarantine authorities predict that this alarming trend is likely to continue until the end of the month.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the number of hospitalized patients from the 28th of last month to the 3rd of this month (31st week) stood at 861, an increase of approximately 1.8 times compared to the 475 in the 30th week.
Since COVID-19 was designated as a Level 4 infectious disease requiring surveillance, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has been monitoring the status of hospitalized patients at 220 200-bed hospital-level surveillance institutions nationwide.
The trend reveals a worrying upward trajectory, with the number peaking at 875 in the first week of February and then steadily decreasing before experiencing a resurgence since the end of June. Notably, the past month has witnessed a staggering 5.8-fold increase in hospitalized patients: 148 in the 28th week → 226 in the 29th week → 475 in the 30th week → 861 in the 31st week.
By age, patients aged 65 and older accounted for 65.2% (8,087 people) of the total hospitalized patients (12,407 people), followed by those aged 50 to 64 with 18.1% (2,251 people) and those aged 19 to 49 with 10.3% (1,283 people).
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency attributes this surge to the summer season. “Respiratory viruses are typically prevalent in the winter, but COVID-19 has been prevalent in July and August for the past two years,” an agency official stated. “Considering the trend over the past two years, we expect the number of COVID-19 patients to increase until the end of August.”
As the number of hospitalized patients increases, the detection rate of the COVID-19 pathogen is also escalating. The pathogen detection rate of the domestic influenza and respiratory virus pathogen sample surveillance (K-RISS) has climbed from 13.6% in week 28 to 24.6% in week 29, 29.2% in week 30, and 39.2% in week 31.
The prevalent virus strain is a new variant called KP.3, which now accounts for 45.5% of all variants, up 33.4% from June. Other prevalent variants include KP.2 (15.8%), JN.1 (14.6%), and JN.1.16 (10.4%).
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency is closely monitoring several mutations, including JN.1, KP.3, KP.2, JN.1.16, and LB.1. While KP.3 has shown an upward trend globally, the agency notes that there have been no reports of increased transmissibility or severity.