Korea’s Cumulative COVID Deaths Surpass 30,000

Cumulative deaths from COVID-19 in Korea surpassed 30,000 on Sunday. Reaching the 20,000 mark in mid-April, over 80 percent of total fatalities took place this year.

Health authorities said the total rose to 30,066 as of Monday morning.

It took a year and 10 months for deaths to surpass 5,000 after the first fatality was reported on Feb. 20, 2020 and another three months for the number to surpass 10,000 on March 12, 2022, only one month to reach 20,000 and seven months to reach 30,000.

Over 1,000 people died of or with COVID over the past month alone. The daily number declined to the single digits on Oct. 18, but rose to 40 to 60 after a new wave of infections began recently. Some 93.6 percent of the victims were over 60. The overall death rate in Korea now stands at 0.11 percent.

According to Our World in Data, Korea ranks 35th in the world when in terms of coronavirus deaths but sixth in confirmed infections (26.58 million). The U.S. has had the most deaths with 1.10 million, followed by Brazil (689,003) and India (530,574).

Meanwhile, Korea reported another 23,091 new COVID cases on Monday morning.