COVID Fatalities Surge

Coronavirus fatalities continue to rise as expected two or three weeks behind a surge in infections to reach the third highest levels in the world.

The country already ranks first in the world in terms of new infections and the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases has surpassed 10 million or one-fifth of the population. About 9 million of them were reported just in the last two months.

According to Our World in Data, 327 Koreans died of COVID last Saturday and 329 on Sunday, second only after Russia until the U.S. surged ahead on Monday.

Korea now ranks third with 2,253 cases after the U.S. (7,534) and Russia (3,477) in terms of cumulative fatalities over the past week, but they have much bigger populations.

Given that the number of critically ill patients and fatalities lag behind new infections by two to three weeks and the daily number of infections surpassed 600,000 in mid-March, fatalities are highly likely to rise further.

As of Wednesday morning, the daily tally of new infections stood at 490,881 with 291 deaths and 1,084 severe cases.