ACCUMULATED CASES SURPASS 10 MILLION

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The accrued number of COVID-19 cases in Korea has surpassed ten million. That means 20 percent of the nation's population has been infected. Precedents in other countries show that is usually when COVID-19 outbreaks start declining. However, health authorities and experts say it's too soon to expect the outbreak to subside.

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South Korea added 490,881 new COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday midnight. The accrued number of cases surpassed ten million and currently stands at 10,427,247. This means one in every five people has been infected. The number of cases recorded this year alone now accounts for 93.7 percent of accrued cases. In the past two years, only 630,000 infections were recorded. In other countries that experienced Omicron waves, outbreaks declined after 20 percent of the populations got infected. This has led some to believe the outbreak in Korea would also start declining this week. Authorities say the Omicron wave has started peaking, but it's unclear when cases will start dropping.

[Soundbite] Sohn Young-rae(Central Disaster Management HQs) : "It remains to be seen if the outbreak will start declining after peaking, as the Stealth Omicron is transmitted faster than the original Omicron variant."

The number of serious cases was over a thousand for two weeks now, while the number of new deaths stands at 291. Experts predict these figures will continue to rise for the time being.

[Soundbite] Prof. Jung Jae-hun(Gachon Univ.) : "The number of serious cases and deaths usually surges 2-3 weeks after the peak, which means it will highly likely continue to rise for the time being."

The government also expanded cremations as crematoriums in the nation are full to capacity due a surge in COVID-19 related deaths. All 60 crematoriums nationwide now conduct seven cremations per furnace, a standard that was previously applied to crematoriums in the Seoul metropolitan area only.