As the Covid-19 summer resurge continues, the number of daily new cases surged above 180,000 on Wednesday, nearing the peak estimate of the re-infestation expected by the quarantine authorities.
On Wednesday, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed 180,803 new virus cases raising the cumulative caseload to 20,160,154 and marking the highest daily tally in more than four months. Wednesday’s figure comes after health authorities predicted the resurge would peak at around 200,000 confirmed cases per day later this month before slowly decreasing.
Last week, Korea recorded the highest Covid-19 infections worldwide per population, with 16,452 per 1 million people, according to Our World in Data.
The number of imported cases also rose to 567, the fifth-largest daily tally ever. An additional 42 people died of Covid-19, lifting the death toll to 25,752, with a fatality rate of 0.12 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 469. Health officials predicted that the daily death toll could rise to 140 early next month.
"The increase in travel volume during the summer vacation season and the National Liberation Day holiday is expected to have an impact on the number of cases," said Kim Sung-ho, head of the interior ministry's disaster management office, during a Covid-19 response meeting. "In response, we will operate a weekend on-call hospital focusing on seriously ill patients at large general hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan region for six weeks from this Saturday."
Kim added that the government would eliminate obstacles to administering oral Covid-19 drugs in some areas and find ways to solve the supply bottleneck.
Despite the continued surge in cases, health officials didn't seem particularly worried.
"It is not good that the number of confirmed cases keeps increasing. However, when we look at the previous numbers of confirmed cases under the previous government, the figure is not very concerning," said Jung Ki-suck, head of the Covid-19 Response Headquarters. "The reason that the increase in the number of deaths is lower than the increase in the number of confirmed cases is that the government's strategy in reducing the fatality rate and severe cases is working."
Jung added that the aggravation rate was 0.12-0.20 percent during the peak of the Omicron pandemic but dropped to 0.08 in the fourth week of July along with the fatality rate.
However, Jung urged people who had not received the required vaccination to take shots as soon as possible.
"Six out of 10 people who died from Covid-19 were not properly vaccinated," Jung said. "For high-risk groups, both the first and second booster shot is a must."
Jung stressed that Korea's stringency index, an indicator of the strictness of the Covid-19 rules, such as social distancing, is lower than other countries, including the U.S. and Singapore. He then noted that while the government should not let the number of confirmed cases get out of control, it should do everything in its power to let the people continue to lead normal daily lives while thoroughly protecting and treating high-risk groups.
The government will bring in 50,000 additional doses of MSD's Lagevrio oral pill to better protect high-risk groups. The government has so far introduced 100,000 doses under the contract of buying 242,000 doses of the antiviral pill.
In March, the authorities began administering Lagevrio for patients with underlying illnesses or symptoms that prevented them from taking Pfizer's Paxlovid or other treatment pills. They have prescribed 40,000 doses so far.
According to the agency, about 44.65 million among 52 million Koreans have been fully vaccinated. In addition, about 33.51 million people had received their first booster shots, and 6.65 million had their second booster shots.