The government has decided to postpone lifting quarantine obligation for confirmed Covid-19 patients for four weeks, explaining that such relaxation could bring about a resurgence of the Covid-19 virus as early as this summer.
“While the current epidemic scale is manageable, there are lingering concerns,” Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said during a daily task force meeting. “We are confirming highly contagious new variants, and there are worries that these variants raise the possibility of reducing vaccine efficacy and avoiding immunity.”
He added that the government would maintain the seven-day quarantine mandate for confirmed patients and reevaluate the situation after four weeks.
Lee stressed that until the reevaluation, the government would listen to the opinions of various experts and reestablish a quarantine system based on scientific evidence by developing reasonable standards for switching quarantine duties.
The government also plans to establish a medical response system by, for instance, increasing medical institutions for face-to-face treatment and securing isolated beds for inpatients over the next four weeks.
“We will thoroughly manage the quarantine situation and go all out to return to normalcy completely by meticulously preparing for the transition to the post-Omicron phase,” Lee said. “Please again understand the inevitable delay in the complete transition to the post-Omicron system.”
Despite the postponement of lifting the quarantine obligation for confirmed Covid-19 patients, it will push ahead with other “soft-landing measures,” such as providing maintenance support and subsidizing Covid-19 tests and treatment, Lee added.
Explaining further the background for the delayed lifting of the quarantine mandate, another official pointed out the risk of the “early un-lockdown.”
“Even if we maintain the quarantine obligation, there is a possibility that the pandemic will resurge this summer and reach its peaks around September or October because of reduced immunity,” Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Deputy Commissioner Kim Hun-joo said. “If we lift the quarantine obligation, the current decline may not continue, and a rebound will occur around June or July.”
Kim added that the authorities also considered that many countries still maintain their quarantine obligations, and the rate of new confirmed cases in Korea is still higher than in other major countries.
The postponement of lifting the quarantine mandate comes after the decline in the virus curve gave a boost to the government's efforts to restore pre-pandemic normalcy, enabling it to lift most of the virus restrictions, such as the cap on private gatherings and business curfews.
On Friday, the KDCA confirmed 25,125 new virus cases, raising the cumulative caseload to 17,914,957.
Apart from the Monday tally of 13,292, the daily counts have steadily declined this week, from 35,113 on Tuesday to 28,130 on Thursday.
The death toll came to 23,885, up 43 from the previous day, with a fatality rate of 0.13 percent. However, critically ill patients came to 251, down 23 from a day earlier.
According to the KDCA, about 44.56 million people have been fully vaccinated, or 86.8 percent of 52-million Koreans. In addition, about 33.25 million people had received their first booster shots, representing 64.8 percent.