The government plans to survey 10,000 patients to make guidelines for treating long Covid, lasting aftereffects seen by many recovered people.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Friday that the government decided to conduct the survey as a proper investigation has been insufficient despite many people experiencing the aftereffects of Covid-19.
"After the investigation, the government will systematically analyze the causes and symptoms through a large-scale investigation and make guidelines for treatment," Han said while presiding over the daily Central Disaster Management Headquarters meeting.
The World Health Organization defines an aftereffect of Covid-19 as cases that begin within three months of the onset of the disease, with patients showing symptoms for at least two months and their illness unexplainable by another diagnosis. There are about 200 possible aftereffects, including headache, cognitive decline, fatigue, shortness of breath, hair loss, depression, anxiety, palpitations, menstrual cycle fluctuations, and muscle pain.
There is no specific treatment for sequelae caused by an aftereffect of Covid-19, and quarantine authorities are guiding those with sequelae to get enough rest and visit a medical institution to receive symptomatic treatment according to symptoms. In addition, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) is preparing a study with a target of 10,000 people, including children and adolescents.
"The need to secure standardized data has increased due to the prolonged Covid-19, the increase in confirmed cases, and the appearance of omicron mutations," the KDCA said. "The progress will be informed later."
The agency expects to begin the large-scale investigation in the second half of this year and, after an interim analysis, release the guidelines in the first half of next year.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Han also stressed that the government would integrate various Covid-19 outpatient treatment centers under the "Respiratory Patient Treatment Center," classify the types of treatment available at each center and secure more than 5,000 one-stop medical institutions that can perform tests, face-to-face treatment, and prescriptions.
Meanwhile, the government made it clear that Korea may consider banning certain foreign nationals from entry if a new deadly variant emerges.
"The transmission characteristics of a new variant, if it emerges, will be highly uncertain," new KDCA Commissioner Peck Kyong-ran said. "If researchers confirm that a new strain is as fatal as the Delta variant, an entry ban on foreign arrivals could be fundamentally necessary."
During the early days of the epidemic, Peck, who was then serving as the director of the Korea Society of Infectious Diseases and a professor at Samsung Medical Center, aggressively demanded the government immediately ban the entry of foreign nationals during the early stages of the epidemic, citing a lack of medical resources to treat them.
Peck defended her comments during a recent National Assembly hearing, saying that if the government imposed an entry ban on foreign nationals, Korea could have bought time to better prepare for the pandemic.
The KDCA said that Korea added 9,315 Covid-19 cases, including 34 from overseas, on Friday, bringing the total to 18,209,650.
The agency stressed that it is the first time in nearly five months that the figure for Friday fell below the 10,000 level.
The country added 18 Covid-19 deaths, bringing the total death toll to 24,341. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 107, up from 106 the previous day.
As of Friday, 44.6 million, or 86.9 percent of the population, had completed the full two-dose vaccinations, and 33.33 million, representing 64.9 percent, had received their first booster shots. More than 4.23 million people, or 8.2 percent of the population, had gotten their second booster shots, the KDCA said.