As the Omicron wave keeps spreading, civics activists called for the government to discontinue relaxing Covid-19 restrictions on Monday.
The number of new virus cases is rising steeply, and the daily death toll keeps breaking records, said the Korean Federation of Medical Activist Groups for Health Rights in a statement. The group then noted that it is quite worrying that the government keeps easing Covid-19 rules in this situation.
“The government is reassuring citizens, saying the number of severely ill patients is smaller than the Delta wave and it has sufficient ICU beds available,” the federation said. “However, it is not talking about the surging death toll. The daily number of deaths from Covid-19 is about twice higher than in December when the government first relaxed virus restrictions.”
The federation also claimed that the number of critically ill Covid-19 patients was underestimated because of the government’s recent measure to shorten the quarantine period of infected patients.
“The official number of severely ill Covid-19 patients was larger than now, with many patients unable to receive treatments due to the shortage of sickbeds. However, the daily death toll is higher now than three months ago,” it said. “There may be various reasons for it, but the underreporting of critically ill patients is undoubtedly one of them.”
The federation pointed out that even severely ill patients had been freed from quarantine according to an administrative order issued by the government in December, adding that the mandatory isolation period has been shortened to seven days since February.
“Many of the patients are being excluded from the list of severely ill patients,” it said. “The government measure is creating a statistical illusion.”
The civic group also pointed to the overburdening of medical workers resulting from the government’s eased restrictions that did not consider the manpower shortage.
“More often than not, the hospital beds secured by the government cannot be used due to the shortage of workforce. The government says the occupancy rate of beds at intensive care units remains at 56 percent, but, in reality, they are almost full,” it said. “Nurses were burnt out and quit while newly hired workers cannot replace experienced ones. In addition, the rising infection of medical workers is making the situation even more difficult.”
It pointed out that many patients are not receiving treatments in the early phase, and those who get at-home treatments are not being transported to hospitals when their symptoms aggravate.
“Some infants and children who had received treatment at home happened to die before being carried to hospitals,” the federation added.
In conclusion, the federation urged the government to stop relaxing social distancing rules immediately and tell the people about the real risk of the Omicron variant.
“Instead, the government must support businesses to extend social distancing sufficiently. It should not gloss over the Omicron’s risk and its medical capacity but tell the truth to the people,” it said. “The health authorities also ought to help hospitals and public health centers replenish healthcare manpower.”
Criticizing that the government is returning its quarantine success to zero in the run-up to the presidential election, the federation said, “The government must not give up its primary role as the protector of the public’s lives. Otherwise, it will not be free from the criticism of ‘political quarantine,’”