New Covid-19 cases may likely rise up to 170,000 by the end of this month, a top quarantine official forecasted on Monday.

"According to the Covid-19 outbreak predictions by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) and various experts at home and abroad, the number of new virus cases could rise between 130,000 and 170,000 toward the end of February due to the Omicron variant," KDCA Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said.

Lee Sang-won, a KDCA crisis response analyst, backed her up, saying, "The forecast is based on models combining spreading speed, the possibility of transmission, the probability of infection, and the effect of vaccination."

Explaining that officials counted the number of new confirmed cases per day based on the agreement between the results of multiple studies, Lee said that most researchers agreed with the possibility of confirming more than 130,000 patients daily.

However, Lee added that he could not say for sure that the Omicron’s spread would peak at the end of this month. "While it is possible to predict outcomes considering various variables, it is not easy to know if the predictions will come true," he said.

The health authorities' comments come after the daily infection trend has surpassed their initial prediction.

According to a short-term prediction made by the KDCA on Jan. 21 based on the assumption that the transmission rate of Omicron is three times that of the Delta variant, the number of new confirmed cases will reach 27,000 to 36,800 in mid-February, and 79,500 to 122,200 in late February.

However, as of midnight Monday, the KDCA confirmed 35,286 new Covid-19 infections, including 35,131 local infections, despite fewer testing over the weekend, pushing the cumulative 1,044,963, breaking the 1-million mark for the first time.

Faced with the continuous surge of daily cases leading to increased demand for at-home treatment, the government has reorganized its overall quarantine system.

Under the new system, asymptomatic and mild Covid-19 patients under 60 will undergo at-home treatment. Health officials conduct daily checkups on only high-risk Covid-19 patients aged 60 or older or those with preexisting medical conditions. Low-risk patients under 50 will be asked to monitor their conditions and contact hospitals if their symptoms deteriorate.

The government has also decided to halt its tracking of quarantined citizens for the first time in two years. As a result, family members of Covid-19 patients will be able to go out to buy food, medicine, or other necessities despite being in the at-home care period.

KDCA Commissioner Jeong forecasted at-home care patients might reach around 1 million early next month. "The number of new patients has doubled for three weeks in a row," Jeong reported to the National Assembly.

As the new school semester begins soon, the Ministry of Education said that schools should decide whether to stick to in-person classes or switch to remote learning depending on their respective virus situations.

“Under a new Covid-19 response plan to be effective for the new semester in March, the government will give leeway to schools in choosing from a four-phased system, ranging from full in-person courses to fully online classes, depending on the virus circumstances,” Education Minister Yoo Eun-hye said.

Schools will also be responsible for detecting virus cases and conducting contact tracing in their compounds using rapid antigen test kits and mobile polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test labs.

The government has vaccinated 44,682,457 people, with the first vaccine shot up 453 from the previous day. In addition, it has provided more than 28.1 million booster shots to older adults and other vulnerable groups.

Some 86 percent of Koreans were fully vaccinated, 87.1 percent had received their first shots, and 54.9 percent had received booster shots.