The government is looking for ways to reduce the cost of Covid-19 testing as asymptomatic people complain about paying a considerable sum.
"We will come up with a plan to ease the economic burden and announce it soon," Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Ki-il said during a press briefing.
Korea currently limits the number of subjects who can receive free polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests at screening centers to people 60 years and older or those who have received a doctor's opinion that they need testing due to suspected Covid-19 symptoms overseas entrants.
While those who have symptoms pay 5,000 won ($3.85) due to the reimbursement system, asymptomatic patients or those who had close contact with confirmed patients have to pay about 50,000 won to receive the test. Such high costs have led asymptomatic patients to avoid tests, raising concerns about the possible increase in hidden cases.
To check confirmed cases better, the government will expand temporary screening laboratories nationwide, currently centered in the Seoul metro region.
In the daily Covid-19 meeting chaired by President Yoon Suk-yeol for the first time since he took office on May 10, Yoon called for officials to carry out a “precise, targeted quarantine.”
“This government aims at minimizing deaths and severe cases while maintaining normal daily lives,” he said. President Yoon’s chairing of the daily quarantine meeting comes as the nation faces the pandemic’s sixth wave due to the spread of the Omicron subvariants.
Health officials reported in the meeting that they would complete the contract for oral Covid-19 treatment for 942,000 people by the first week of next month for delivery in the second half of August and expand the number of pharmacies supplying the drugs. Korea currently has Covid-19 treatment pills for 755,000 people.
Korea will also start providing Evusheld injections, a Covid-19 antibody treatment developed by AstraZeneca, to those with weak immune systems from Aug. 8.
Evusheld is an antibody-drug that directly administers the antibody to immunocompromised patients, such as blood cancer patients and patients receiving immunosuppressive treatment after organ transplantation, who cannot expect antibody formation through vaccination against Covid-19.
KDCA Commissioner Peck Kyong-ran said in the meeting that the current virus wave could peak at around 200,000 infection cases a day, lower than the previous prediction, given the weaker-than-expected spread of the subvariant.
"If the virus wave develops within the predicted range, we should be able to respond with the prepared quarantine and medical capabilities without uniform social distancing measures like limiting the number and size of private gatherings," Peck said.
On Friday, the KDCA confirmed 85,320 new virus cases, including 439 imported cases, raising the cumulative caseload to 19,620,517.
The death toll came to 24,992, up 35 from the previous day, with a fatality rate of 0.13 percent. Critically ill patients also increased from 196 to 234.
Despite the virus resurgence, health authorities said they are not considering a rollback of the antivirus restrictions, like tight social distancing and business hour curfews, and that the post-pandemic efforts toward regaining normalcy will continue.
According to the agency, about 44.64 million among 52 million Koreans have been fully vaccinated. In addition, about 33.45 million people had received their first booster shots, and 5.46 million had their second booster shots.