Korea has recorded the largest number of Covid-19 deaths among countries with a population of less than 100 million, but the quarantine authorities and private experts continued to bicker over the K-quarantine’s effectiveness on Friday.
As the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases is larger than expected, with the peak yet to come, many experts have criticized the government's self-praise of "K-Quarantine." However, quarantine officials refuted these claims, stressing that the epidemic has turned to a declining trend and that the fatality rate is lower than in other countries.
"The number of confirmed cases has peaked off and is showing a gradual decline," said Lee Ki-il, a controller at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters on Friday. "The average number of confirmed cases per week peaked at 405,000 last Saturday but has dropped by about 12 percent to 358,000 today."
Although it is not clear, the government believes that the recent record high of about 620,000 daily Covid-19 cases was the peak, Lee noted. He added that the government is closely monitoring the spread of BA.2, the so-called stealth Omicron, which has a 30 percent higher transmission rate than the original Omicron variant, as there have been overseas cases where the Covid-19 pandemic reemerged due to the spread of BA.2.
"The stealth Omicron has popped up, but we're looking closely to see what happens," Lee said.
However, experts pointed to the undiminishing daily death toll of 300 to 400.
The death toll fell to 393 after reaching an all-time high of 470 on Thursday, but an average of 340.5 people died from the virus in a day in the past week.
Based on this and other trends, some health experts pointed out that the government's self-praise of "K-quarantine" is absurd.
However, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, President Moon Jae-in’s czar in the Covid-19 fight, countered such criticism.
"Please judge the situation objectively and comprehensively, such as the confirmation rate and death rate relative to the population, the cumulative fatality rate, and various economic indicators," Kim said. "In the fight against Covid-19, which has been going on for more than two years, the government has minimized the sacrifice of public lives to less than one-tenth compared to major countries with similar populations."
However, experts said it is inappropriate for the government to emphasize the low fatality rate where hundreds of people die every day.
"While the existing Covid-19 variant changed to Omicron, the government was unable to change its strategy due to its obsession with the initial success," Professor Chun Byung-Chul of the Department of Epidemiology at Korea University said. "The K quarantine failure theory has been raised because the government was simply not ready."
Regarding the government's continued praise about the success of "K-quarantine" based on low fatality rates, Chun said, "We are at a time when the death toll is increasing, but it is not appropriate to compare data with data from countries that have already reached the peak of the epidemic."
Other medical experts also pointed out that the government's quarantine policy lacked public communication and scientific evidence. In addition, the government lost trust by flip-flopping social distancing rules according to short-term indicators, such as the number of daily confirmed cases.
"The problem with the government's quarantine measures is the absence of a long-term response strategy," Professor Cheong Jae-hoon of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Gachon University College of Medicine said. "The government’s perspective is shortsighted."
A typical example is a message that if Korea achieves 70 percent of vaccination for its population, it can lead to herd immunity, Cheon added.
Other experts complained about the government’s failure to listen to experts’ advice.
"The government has lost credibility, and people no longer trust its quarantine policy," said Professor Kim Woo-joo of the Infectious Disease Department at Korea University Guro Hospital. "The government did not listen to the experts, before and now."
On Friday, the KDCA confirmed 339,514 new Covid-19 cases, raising the cumulative caseload to 11,162,232. Critically patients stood at 1,085, up four from the previous day.
The government has started taking reservations for vaccinating children aged 5-11. Parents can make a reservation for a Covid-19 shot starting Thursday, and vaccinations will begin next Thursday nationwide.
However, only 36.1 percent of parents showed a willingness to have their children vaccinated, with 60.5 percent expressing no such intentions, according to a government survey, reflecting deep-rooted concerns and distrust in vaccines.
The country has provided booster shots to 32.52 million people. The number of fully vaccinated people came to 44.47 million, accounting for 86.7 percent of the total population, the KDCA said.