코로나19 심상치 않은 확산세 감염병 등급 하향 변수 되나
South Korea is seeing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.with figures jumping 60 percent in July.
This comes as the government plans to proceed with its next step in the country’s endemic roadmap.
Our Moon Hye-ryeon has the details.
COVID-19 is showing a resurgence here in South Korea with the number of cases rising for four weeks straight, which could throw a wrench in the government’s plans to lower its risk rating.
According to data released by the Central Disease Control Headquarters on Sunday, cases rose by more than 35-percent during the third week of July compared to the week before.
Figures for July have shown significant increases week by week, rising from just over 150-thousand in the first week to the latest figure of 253-thousand – meaning that the number of cases has seen a more than 60-percent rise over three weeks.
Daily figures are hovering near the 50-thousand mark, hitting over 47-thousand on July 19th.
It’s the highest daily tally seen in the country since November last year, when daily figures peaked above 54-thousand.
Experts are saying that the resurgence has been prompted by a number of different factors prompted by the weather – such as more people out and about, less ventilation in buildings with windows tightly shut to keep in the cool air-conditioned air, and fewer people wearing masks due to the heat.
The current dominant subvariant of the virus in circulation is XBB 1.5, which was described by the World Health Organization as having an ‘increased risk of transmission and moderate strength of evidence for immune escape’.
While the vaccine against this new strain is set to be made available in South Korea in October, the low vaccine rates seen last winter among those aged 60 and over, which came to some 34-point-5 percent, means that this may not be so effective for herd immunity.
The latest data comes as the government announced last Wednesday its plans to lower COVID-19’s risk rating on the infectious diseases’ risk classification scale.
Currently, it’s ranked Class 2, which is the second highest rating alongside other highly infectious and high-risk diseases like cholera and tuberculosis.
The government plans to lower it to the lowest rating at Class 4 as part of the the second step in the three-step endemic roadmap unveiled earlier this year.
Being downgraded to Class 4 means that people will no longer have to report to the authorities within 24 hours of testing positive, and the indoor mask mandate at hospitals and nursing homes will be lifted.
The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention will be monitoring the recent data and holding an advisory committee meeting before it implements the decision early in August.
Moon Hye-ryeon, Arirang News.
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2023-07-31, 12:00 (KST)