Health authorities projected on Monday that the current omicron-led wave of COVID-19 will reach its peak either later this month or the middle of March with as many as 270-thousand cases reported daily. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) shared the prediction based on 10 different studies by research institutes at home and abroad. 

If true, it would make the latest pandemic round more tenacious than previously thought. The government two weeks earlier had cited estimates which placed the climax at up to 170-thousand cases per day in late February.

According to the latest outlook, the number of daily cases will exceed 170-thousand by early March, and the number of critically ill patients, currently below 500, could top one-thousand around that time. 

Statistical agencies varied in predicting the duration and size of the ongoing wave, selecting dates between February 28 and March 22 as the day COVID-19 cases will peak. The expected size of the crested daily tally also ranged from 143-thousand to 270-thousand.