Tired of the prolonging Covid-19 and loosened by the Omicron variant’s low severity and fatality, some Koreans demand the government lift virus restrictions to let more people get infected and get out of the pandemic.

However, according to most experts, nothing could be more dangerous if the abrupt and steep surge of new virus cases leads to a proportional increase of critically ill patients and deaths while paralyzing the medical and other social systems.

A case in point is the United States, where the largest number of Covid-19 infections and deaths occurred worldwide. In the process, several pandemic waves came and disappeared. The spread of the Omicron variant in the U.S. shows a similar pattern. The number of new virus cases, which once surged to more than 800,000 a day, has fallen to 100,000.

However, the state of Maine is showing a different pattern from 49 others.

In Maine, the number of infections did not surge and plunge but increased slowly, and the same can be said of hospitalized patients and death tolls.

According to an expert, that’s because Maine boasts a higher vaccination rate than other states, and Mainers follow personal quarantine rules better than average Americans.

The second inoculation rate in the U.S. stands at 65 percent, but that of Maine is far higher at 78 percent. The second vaccination rate among young kids over 5 in Maine also reaches 82 percent, 13 percentage points higher than the U.S. average of 69 percent. In addition, the second shot rate of a high-risk group over 65 approaches 95 percent in Maine compared with the U.S. average of 89 percent.

According to a Korean professor teaching in America, the situation in Maine is similar to Korea’s. For Korea to minimize damages caused by the Omicron variant’s spread, the nation should curb the spread as much as possible to show a modest rise, he added.

Professor Lim Wan-su of Meharry Medical College made these points appearing in a live broadcast last Friday. The live show was produced and released jointly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and “I Am a Doctor,” a podcast aired by The Korean Doctors Weekly, the sister paper of Korea Biomedical Review.

“Among U.S. states, Maine shows a similar infection pattern to Korea’s. This is because Mainers have mature civic awareness, wearing face masks and getting vaccine shots,” Professor Lim said. “Covid-19 has infected not many people in Maine. In other U.S. states, the number of new virus cases keeps surging and plunging. In Maine, however, the daily infection number is rising slowly.”

Lim noted that many Mainers have received shots and watch out for each other. As a result, he said, the spread does not reach a peak and falls amid a low fatality rate.

“Some may think that the situation in Maine is more serious because the number of new infections continues to rise while in other states, new infections surged and fell,” he said. “If we look at the fatality rate, however, the number of Covid-19 death per 100,000 people in Maine is far lower than other states, meaning it suffered less damage.”

Predicting that the Omicron wave would progress slowly thanks to the country’s high vaccination rate, Lim said, “It is good news because the slower and loner the spread, the fewer the deaths. However, if the peak level is too high, it may surpass the limits of the medical system, leading to more deaths. Therefore, to reduce damage, it is essential to keep a balance.”

Repeating that the pandemic had better go long so that there’s no high peak, Lim said, “Although people who have to endure it are having a hard time, it is less damaging than many people get infected and end the pandemic quickly.”

He then pointed out the need to learn lessons from the U.S. and Europe, where people experienced a huge wave.

“According to global Covid-19 data, the Korean situation was predicted. Kora did not experience the crisis but watched many precedents in other countries, including the U.S., France, and the U.K.,” he said. “The reason the number of daily infections fell to 100,000 in America is lots of people there have been infected. Attaining herd immunity is possible only when a quarter of the population is infected, accompanied by a high death toll.”

As of last Sunday, the number of Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. totaled 933,899, with a fatality rate of 1.2 percent. In Korea, 7,450 people have died of Covid-19 amid a mortality rate of 0.36 percent, according to local and global Covid-19 data.