The Yoon Suk-yeol administration held its first meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) without “a control tower” on Wednesday, causing experts to raise concerns about its Covid-19 responses.
Noticeable for their absence were the new prime minister as the head of the CDSCH and the new health-welfare minister as its deputy head, officials said.
It is uncertain when -- or whether -- Han Duck-soo, President Yoon’s nominee for prime minister, and Chung Ho-young, named for the health-welfare minister, will win the approval at the National Assembly’s confirmation hearings. Yoon could appoint them regardless of the parliament’s approval under the Korean system but at his own political expense.
Jung Eun-kyoung, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency commissioner, was also absent at the first Covid-19 response meeting. Yoon has yet to decide whether to retain the KDCA head, who has earned the public’s trust in her job performance.
Accordingly, Lee Ki-il, the new vice health-welfare minister, chaired the meeting.
President Yoon and his transition team have stressed the need for scientific quarantine to differentiate their Covid-19 response from the previous government. However, experts expressed concerns about the absence of top quarantine officials, considering the new government will soon have to make important decisions, such as lifting the mandatory quarantine for infected people and removing the indoor mask mandate.
Despite the absence of its leadership, CDSCH stressed that it would start discussing whether to lift the mandatory quarantine for those who tested positive for Covid-19 from next week.
The former Moon Jae-in administration downgraded the Covid-19 infectious disease rating from level 1 to level 2 on April 25 and set the four weeks until May 22 as a transition period for the medical system to fully prepare.
During the transition period, the Moon administration was to maintain the existing Covid-19 diagnosis and testing system and a mandatory seven-day quarantine for confirmed cases.
The mandatory quarantine period for confirmed patients will be goner from May 23, but the Yoon administration said it would make the final decision “after observing the situation.”
His transition committee had criticized the former government's plan to restore daily life as a hasty approach, causing experts to predict the new government might halt loosening the control.
"We will closely examine and evaluate the four-week transition period with experts," Vice Health Minister Lee said. "After a comprehensive evaluation next week, we will discuss the timing of when to adopt the eased quarantine rules fully."
Son Young-rae, head of the social strategy division of the Central Accident Resolving Headquarters of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, pointed out that now is the time for the change of command at the quarantine headquarters, calling for more patience.
"When we finalize all these changes, we will discuss the overall quarantine strategy and review it in more detail," Son said. "As the new government begins, the quarantine policy will also undergo an intermediate evaluation, and we will also discuss new improvement measures."
The KDCA confirmed 43,925 new virus cases on Wednesday, raising the cumulative caseload to 17,658,794.
The death toll came to 23,491, up 29 from the previous day, with a fatality rate of 0.13 percent. However, critically ill patients came to 383, down 15 from a day earlier.
About 33.2 million people, or 64.7 percent of the country's 52-million population, have received booster shots. The number of fully vaccinated people also came to 44.56 million, representing 86.8 percent of Koreans, the KDCA said.