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A staff member at the Songpa District Office stands in front of a monitor displaying cumulative and newly confirmed COVID-19 in Korea on March 22. (Yonhap News)

As of Wednesday morning, Korea’s cumulative number of confirmed COVID cases surpassed the 10 million mark — equivalent to around one-fifth of the country’s population. While it took more than two years to reach 1 million total cases, a further 9 million people have been infected in less than two months.

As of the end of the day Monday, the number of new daily cases stood at 353,968 (353,934 community infections and 46 from overseas), bringing the cumulative total to 9,936,540. Considering the daily average of 380,000 over the past week, the 10 millionth case would have occurred sometime Tuesday afternoon. Daily case totals are tallied until midnight and announced the next morning.

Thanks to strong policies enacted by disease control authorities to curb the spread of the virus, it was not until Feb. 6 that Korea’s total number of cases reached 1 million (1,009,688). This came 749 days after the first domestic case was confirmed on Jan. 20, 2020.

However, the advent of the highly contagious Omicron variant and changes to the government’s pandemic-response policies have led to a rapid rise in case numbers, breaching the 10 million mark only a month and a half later. The total number of cases in the three months from Jan. 1 this year amounts to 9,305,919, accounting for 93.65% of the cumulative total.

There have been 3,141 deaths (as of midnight on Monday) over the time it took to reach 10 million cases. This puts the case fatality rate at 0.13%.

The majority of those who have died have been older, with people aged 70 or older making up 80.67% of Korea’s deaths. There have been only eight deaths in the 0-9 age group, and just two among those aged 10-20. Experts believe that the true number of cases is likely double the official number when “hidden cases” are included.

“If you look at the global data, it’s practically self-evident that the real scale of infection is greater than the number of confirmed cases,” said Jung Jae-hun, a professor at Gachon University’s College of Medicine. “If around 20% of the Korean population has been infected, that means 40% or so have acquired natural immunity.”

Authorities remain cautious despite hopes that the spread will subside due to a substantial proportion of the population gaining natural immunity and rising vaccination rates — 63.2% of the general public is now boosted, and 88.9% of those aged 60 or above. In other countries, the spread of the disease began to tail off when the infection rate reached 20%.

“Twenty percent is not an absolute margin. The peak may differ depending on the extent to which we gain immunity through vaccinations and current disease control methods, so it’s difficult to predict at the moment,” said Son Young-rae, head of the social strategy division at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, in a regular briefing on Tuesday.

“Stealth Omicron also accounts for a growing proportion of cases in Korea, and we have determined this will have an impact on the peak of the spread or reduction in case numbers moving forward,” he added.

By Kwon Ji-dam, staff reporter

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