Severe COVID-19 patients due to Delta variant top 300 in Korea

The number of severe COVID-19 patients including those who use the ventilator is increasing rapidly in tandem as the spread of the new coronavirus has continued for nearly four weeks. As the number of young Covid-19 patients has increased, four patients in their 20s and 30s died last week alone.

The number of severe COVID-19 patients surpassed 300 on Saturday for the first time since the onset of the fourth wave. The number broke the milestone only 11 days after surpassing 200 (207 cases) on July 20. It took 165 days to hit the 200 mark but only two weeks to top 300.

Chances are high the number of severe COVID-19 patients will increase further going forward. The number of confirmed cases as of 12 a.m. on Sunday was 1,442, while the case number has remained above 1,000 for the 26th day. Notably, the number exceeded the 1,400 mark for three consecutive weekends on Sunday when confirmed cases tend to decline from weekdays. People in their 50s whose vaccination rate is relatively low accounted for the largest portion of all severe patients. A total of 119 (36.7 percent) of the 324 severe COVID-19 patients are people in their 50s. As vaccination for people in their 50s started just a week ago, a majority of them are still unvaccinated. The portion of severe COVID-19 patients in their 40s are also higher (15.4 percent) than people in their 70s and 80s. The ratio of the vaccinated and that of severe patients are disproportionate with each other.

This is also demonstrated by the number of deaths. Eight of the 25 who died in the fourth week of July (July 26 – August 1) were people under age 50, which means one in three has died young. Two each of the deaths were people in their 20s and 30s. None of the 15 deaths were people under age 50 on June 26 to July 2, right before the onset of the fourth wave. The number of people in their 20s who died of COVID-19 in Korea since January last year was five in total, and two of them died just last week.


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