This photo taken on Jan. 31, 2022, and provided by Chilgok County shows people performing a formal Korean bow, called “sebae”, to their mother at a nursing home in Chilgok, North Gyeongsang Province, with the glass door closed due to the spreading omicron variant.
SEOUL, Feb. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases exceeded 18,000 for the first time Tuesday, since the first local case emerged two years ago, due to spread of the omicron variant during the Lunar New Year holiday.
The country reported 18,343 new COVID-19 infections, including 18,123 local cases, raising the total to 864,042 the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
Daily infections jumped after reporting more than 17,000 cases for the past three days through Monday.
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, health authorities and local governments had reported a record high of 11,675 additional cases, up 130 from the same time a day earlier.
The tally excludes new cases from Gyeonggi Province surrounding Seoul due to a system failure.
The death toll from COVID-19 came to 6,772, up 17 from the previous day. The fatality rate was 0.78 percent.
The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients was 272, down five from a day earlier.
A revised virus response system went into effect Saturday to tackle the wave of omicron, which has become the dominant COVID-19 strain in the country.
Eighty percent of the country’s confirmed cases during the last week were omicron.
Health authorities are on high alert as it appears to be a matter of time before daily cases will exceed 20,000 due to increased gatherings of family members during the holiday.
Health authorities didn’t rule out the possibility of a huge wave of coronavirus at the end of this month, with daily cases reaching more than 100,000, due to the rapid spread of omicron.
This photo taken on Feb. 1, 2022, shows people in line to take a coronavirus test at a makeshift testing center in Songpa, eastern Seoul. (Yonhap)
The number of infected people under treatment at their homes may rise to 100,000 from the current 83,000, the KDCA said.
Some 250 testing stations set up at public health centers and large hospitals will adopt both rapid antigen self-tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.
People can choose which one they want to take, the KDCA said.
People aged over 60 or in high-risk groups, such as those with underlying illnesses, will be prioritized for PCR tests.
Beginning Thursday, local hospitals and clinics will also administer self-test kits.
The revised regime is designed to minimize critical cases and deaths, while preventing an overload and collapse of the medical system, the health agency said.
The system will expand nationwide after the three-day Lunar New Year holiday running till Wednesday.
Of the locally transmitted cases Tuesday, Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul reported 5,509, followed by Seoul with 4,103 and the western port city of Incheon with 1,366. Cases from overseas rose 220 to 25,516.
As of Tuesday, 27.25 million people, or 53.1 percent of the country’s 52 million population, had received booster shots, the KDCA said.
The number of fully vaccinated people came to 44 million people, accounting for 86 percent.
(Yonhap)
