The Covid-19 pandemic did not come to an end in 2021. The pandemic was the most worrying social issue this year. Korea has been fighting Covid-19 for two years but is still struggling. The pandemic was not the only issue in the medical community this year. For the first time in the world, Korea enacted legislation to mandate the installation of surveillance cameras in operating rooms. Korea Biomedical Review has compiled the five biggest medical industry stories in 2021. – Ed.
The Covid-19 virus, first reported in China in November 2019, keeps infecting people worldwide with almost endless viral mutations despite all-out efforts to contain them.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), five types of Covid-19 variants were confirmed in Korea as of Dec. 10 – Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron.
The Delta variant, first identified in India in October 2020, has become the dominant strain of the Covid-19 virus worldwide. Delta has 1.6 times higher transmission power than Alpha, first found in the U.K. in September 2020.
The Delta variant was the major cause of the fourth wave of the pandemic in Korea, which started with cluster infections in the Hongdae area in Seoul in July. The cluster infections quickly spread with the Delta variant among young people in their 20s and 30s.
While the entire world was grappling with the Delta variant, the Omicron variant was identified in South Africa in November.
Researchers are still analyzing Omicron, but it is known to be more contagious than Delta, even among those already infected with Covid-19.
After Omicron was reported, the Korean health authorities banned foreign arrivals from eight African countries, including South Africa, and mandated 10-day quarantine upon arrival regardless of vaccination status.
However, after a visit to Nigeria, a couple who entered the country tested positive for the Omicron variant for the first time in Korea.
The health authorities raised concerns that the highly contagious Omicron variant might worsen the spike in Covid-19 cases amid a gradual easing of social distancing and overwhelm the healthcare system.
However, recent studies showed that Omicron infections tend to result in milder symptoms than earlier variants, and the health authorities and experts closely monitor Omicron-infected patients' conditions.