Virus policy shift tested by surge in S. Korea

With South Korea hit by record-high coronavirus infections, medical experts have voiced concerns about a policy shift that envisions the country learning to live with COVID-19.

"We are relaxing social distancing (rules) gradually and trying to slow down the speed of (infections)," said Cho Sung-il, a professor of epidemiology at Seoul National University. But Cho points out the number of new daily infections will remain "fairly high for the time being".

South Korea began its transition to "living with COVID-19" on Nov 1, with movement restrictions eased. But it halted it in just a month due to the resurgence in infections.

The country's daily infections reached a record high of 49,567 on Wednesday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, or KDCA. The national caseload stood at more than 1.13 million. Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 400 million on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The number of severe cases in South Korea hit 285 after 17 such cases were added on Wednesday, KDCA data showed. South Korea's COVID-19 death toll had reached 6,943－up by 21 from the previous day. The fatality rate has been put at 0.61 percent.

New infections have increased nearly fourfold from the previous two weeks due to the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Cho takes some encouragement from the low fatality rate in the country. However, he said this could be explained by high vaccination coverage. Still, the rate could increase unless all people are strongly protected.

Strategy under review

Cho said severe infections are occurring mostly among the elderly, highlighting the need for them to be protected.

"Otherwise, the mortality rate will keep rising," he said.

South Korea has decided to maintain its current social distancing rules till Feb 20. The government may consider slowly lifting quarantine measures and switching to a "living with COVID-19" strategy after evaluating the situation during this period, according to The Korea Herald.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that the latest spike in COVID-19 could be "the last hurdle" on the country's path to returning to normalcy.

Son Young-rae, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said half of the country's Omicron infections are asymptomatic and that the variant has shown to be only one-fifth as fatal as the Delta variant.

Son said the herd immunity has been occurring in countries hit earlier by Omicron and that this could also eventuate for South Korea.

Lee Hoon-sang, a visiting professor at Yonsei University's Graduate School of Public Health, said he is cautious about the moves toward eased restrictions.

Though Omicron has caused much fewer deaths than other variants, Lee said it is still different from influenza as the fatality rate of a common flu season is only between 0.05 and 0.1 percent.

"It is quite understandable that the government is going into some kind of 'living with COVID-19' policy with much loosened social distancing and controlling measures," Lee told China Daily.

"But the government should send a clear message that we are not completely in a normal situation."