South Korea's new government expressed its willingness to cooperate with the North to help Pyongyang effectively combat the Covid-19 pandemic on Thursday.“We hope that the Covid-19 will not spread further but come under control early,” the Unification Ministry said. “The government can always push f
Covid-19 is entering a new phase, but reflections on the existing quarantine system and discussions about future responses are lacking in Korea amid the change of political power, an expert said Wednesday.“Now is the time for the government to consider responses to the future pandemic,” said Lee Jae
Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) found why the Covid-19 variant Omicron’s transmission power was stronger than those of other variants.On Thursday, the Central Disease Control Headquarters released the results of the KDCA’s structural modeling analysis of the spike protein to predi
The Yoon Suk-yeol administration held its first meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) without “a control tower” on Wednesday, causing experts to raise concerns about its Covid-19 responses.Noticeable for their absence were the new prime minister as the head
The government has urgently approved the import of about 130,000 bottles of Tylenol Suspension from Australia to relieve the short local supply amid the pandemic.However, the nation has already passed the point of the extreme shortage of cold medicines in March and the government’s move is too late,
Despite ongoing slowdowns in the decline of new cases or even sporadic increases, Korea’s Covid-19 spread has been on a decreasing trend recently, albeit with one exception – the under-18 group.According to Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) on Tuesday, the number of co
Lilly’s Olumiant (baricitinib) and Abbvie’s Rinvoq (upadacitinib) got health insurance benefits starting from May 1 to treat severe atopic dermatitis.Patients who used the two drugs to treat severe atopic dermatitis without health insurance will be able to get insurance benefits as long as they meet
Although the decline of new Covid-19 cases stagnated over the weekend, quarantine officials predicted on Monday that there would be no sudden increase for the time being."The decline in the Covid-19 prevalence is slowing down," said Son Young-rae, head of the social strategy team in the Central Disa
The government should raise the status of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) to the tentatively titled “Ministry of Health” to integrate the management and operation of the public health system.The Korea Institute of Public Administration, a government-financed research organizat
“I wonder if spending much energy to overhaul government organizations for every new administration will be effective. But, on the other hand, if the energy is used to help the current organizations to work properly, the government can provide value-added policy for people.”Kim Gang-lip, Minister of
"We must be wary of unwarrantedly denigrating quarantine results achieved through the participation of the whole nation by enduring pain and discomfort," Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Monday.Kim, the Covid-19 czar of the Moon Jae-in administration, said so while presiding over the last daily quar
Health authorities have started to check for a new nitrosamine impurity in quetiapine medicines.Quetiapine is a treatment for schizophrenia and has a prescription market size of 30 billion won ($23.7 million). The original product is Alvogen Korea’s Seroquel, with 30 pharmaceutical companies selling
The Korean government said it would pour 877.8 billion won ($693 million) into the pharmaceutical industry to enhance R&D for new drugs and manpower.The Ministry of Health and Welfare said its committee for fostering and supporting the pharmaceutical industry finalized its plan for 2022.To make Kore
The government has decided to actively support businesses that continue to allow employees to work from home, despite the waning Omicron wave.It will provide free consulting services to businesses that adopt telecommuting.To help businesses adopt the remote working system, the government will offer
Korea's daily Covid-19 tally rose over 50,000 on Tuesday, more than doubling the caseload from the previous days of about 20,000.The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed 51,131 new virus cases, raising the cumulative caseload to 17,346,753. The number of confirmed cases, whic
A majority of Koreans kept wearing masks even outdoors on Monday, although the government no longer obligated it.While showing a generally positive reaction to the lifting of the mandatory outdoor mask wear, citizens remained cautious about taking off the mask outdoors."I think it is okay to take of
The government granted health insurance benefits to the combination therapy of Tecentriq and Avastin to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and Tecentriq monotherapy to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), effective from May. The government also lowered the maximum rates of reimbursement on ea
Clinical trials of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases expanded rapidly in Korea in 2021, government data showed. According to the “2021 pharmaceutical clinical trial approval status” announced by the Korea National Enterprise for Clinical Trials (KoNECT) and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety
The government will end the 18-month-long outdoor mask mandate following Monday, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said.However, Koreans will have to wear a mask at gatherings, performances, and sports events where more than 50 people gather because these places have a high risk of infection. The governme
A government official said Korea’s first homegrown digital therapeutic would get marketing approval within this year.Kang Young-kyu, director of the Digital Health Devices Division at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), said 10 digital therapeutics (DTx) were in clinical trials. At least on