The nation’s new virus cases topped 170,000 on Wednesday amid the increase of severely ill patients. Still, government officials attempted to emphasize “positive factors,” citing the low mortality rate of the Omicron variant.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, new virus cases totaled 171,271 to hit another record high. As virus spreads have peaked in many countries, Korea’s daily tally was highest on that day. According to the international statistical website Worldometer, the new Covid-19 cases in major countries on Tuesday were 41,130 in the U.K., 61,863 in the U.S., and 158,507 in Germany, all lower than Korea’s Wednesday.
The weekly new virus cases have been doubling over the past five weeks, and the number of severely ill patients has soared from 200 to 512 this month.
Despite the surge, the government said there is “no need for panic,” emphasizing that fully vaccinated people can handle Covid-19 like seasonal influenza.
It said the fatality rate of the Omicron variant stood at 0.18 percent, lower than the Delta variant’s 0.70 percent but higher than seasonal flu’s 0.05-0.1 percent. However, among vaccinated and boosted people, Omicron’s mortality rate fell to 0.08 percent approaching that of seasonal flu. On the other hand, Omicron’s fatality rate for unvaccinated people soared to 0.5 percent, five to seven times higher than seasonal flu.
“The Delta variant’s fatality rate for unvaccinated people over 60 reached 10.19 percent, more than 20 times higher than vaccinated ones,” said Son Young-rae, head of the social strategy team at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters (CDMH). “There’s almost no risk of death due to the infection of the Omicron variant for vaccinated people under 50.”
Son acknowledged that the short-term surge of new infections is dangerous due to the proportional rise of severely ill cases and deaths.
“However, given the low fatality rate of the Omicron variant, there are positive factors for recovering normal daily life because the nation needs to have a stabilizing period following the peak.”
Stressing that at stake is how to tide over the peak while curbing severely ill cases and deaths to a manageable level, Son explained that government would strengthen the protection of high-risk groups by focusing on minimizing the severity and fatality rates.
“There is no reason whatsoever to have fear only by the number of new virus cases,” Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum also said while presiding over a regular CDMH meeting earlier in the day. “The government is managing severity and mortality rates in relatively stable ways. If we judge we can control them more stably, we will also restructure the quarantine system in a big way.”
Last week, the government partially eased antivirus curbs by extending the business hour curfews for cafes and restaurants by one hour to 10 p.m. However, it maintained the six-people cap on private gatherings and other curbs.
However, some experts pointed out that making such an evaluation amid surging infections is hasty, possibly sending a wrong message about quarantine to the public.
“Various conditions should be met to stabilize the situation, but the government has failed to meet even one,” said Eom Jung-shik, a professor of infectious disease at Gachon University Gil Hospital. “There is no guarantee that a new variant will not appear and have few treatments easy to prescribe and get. Nor has the fatality rate dropped to an insignificant level. For older adults, Covid-19 remains a serious threat to life.”
Professor Cheong Jae-hun of the same university agreed, saying, “It will become possible to transit to an endemic only when the new virus cases fall to a certain level. After that, a gradual transit may be possible but what’s most important now is how to get over the ongoing wave.”
Wednesday’s new Covid-19 infections included 171,271 local cases, raising the total caseload to 2,329,182, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). This marked a drastic surge from the previous day's 99,573 and is far higher than the previous record of 104,814 tallied Sunday.
The death toll came to 7,607, up 99 from Tuesday. It is the fourth-highest number of daily deaths from the new coronavirus. The fatality rate was 0.33 percent.
The health authorities have said that the omicron wave could peak by early next month, with the daily caseload rocketing up to 270,000. Experts also forecast that serious cases would jump to more than 1,000 by that time.
The upsurge in total infections also pushed the number of patients receiving at-home treatment to an all-time high of 521,294. Amid the Omicron wave, the country adopted an enhanced at-home treatment system to better focus on serious cases and vulnerable people.
As of Wednesday, 30.74 million people had received booster shots or 59.9 percent of the country's 52 million people. The number of fully vaccinated people came to 44.32 million, accounting for 86.4 percent.
On Wednesday, the drug safety agency approved the use of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11 after months of deliberation. The country has seen a growing number of infections among young people, with the proportion of patients aged 18 and younger rising to 27.6 percent last week.
The government will announce detailed inoculation plans next month. The vaccine is used for children of this age group in 62 countries, including the U.S., U.K., and the European Union.