Korea needs to establish a rapid diagnosis and treatment system before the Chuseok holiday (Sept. 9-12), as the number of high-risk group patients may exceed 20,000 a day afterward, a top quarantine advisor said.
“The number of new Covid-19 cases tends to increase after holidays. Suppose daily infections, currently hovering around 100,000 per day, increase after Chuseok. In that case, Korea may see about 20,000 high-risk patients, especially those 60 and older,” said Jung Ki-suck, head of the National Advisory Committee on Infectious Disease Crisis Response.
Jung noted that to treat over 20,000 patients belonging to the high-risk group, Korea will need 500 or more medical institutions.
“The government should evenly distribute 250 public health centers and 300 one-stop medical institutions throughout the country to test and treat high-risk groups promptly,” Jung said. “Also, it will need to raise the prescription rate of oral Covid-19 drugs for high-risk groups, which stands at around 20 percent, to 50 percent or higher to achieve its goal of implementing a precision quarantine on high-risk groups.”
Only when the government makes these preparations will it be able to reduce the severity and fatality rate, Jung added, pointing out that for high-risk groups, doctors should prefer medication over hospitalization unless it is an emergency.
“Even if hospitalization is not possible right away, it will not matter much because doctors can prescribe oral Covid-19 treatment and wait for a day or two before hospitalization,” Jung said. “Also, measures are needed to differentiate between general flu patients and Covid-19 patients in the emergency room during the Chuseok holiday.”
According to Jung, the number of flu patients is increasing this year. However, there is a problem determining whether a patient with a fever is the flu, Covid-19, or other febrile diseases.
“Therefore, it is necessary to communicate with emergency medicine doctors at the scene and sufficiently discuss the medical treatment process for fever patients,” Jung said.
On Friday, The country added 101,140 new Covid-19 infections, including 358 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 22,802,985, the KDCA said.
The country reported 81 new Covid-19 deaths, bringing the death toll to 26,413, the KDCA said. The fatality rate stood at 0.12 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 575
While new virus cases have recently slowed down, authorities remain highly alert over a possible resurgence in the Covid-19 pandemic this fall.
Health authorities expect the number of daily infections to show a reduction trend this week or next week, but the numbers of Covid-19 deaths and critically ill patients could increase in the next two to three weeks.
The health agency projected the numbers of critically ill patients and Covid-19 deaths could reach 800 to 900 and 100 to 140, respectively, in early September.
According to the KDCA, about 44.66 million among 52 million Koreans have been fully vaccinated. In addition, about 33.54 million people had received their first booster shots, and 7.03 million had their second booster shots.
Later in the day, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) granted the “national lot release” approval to SK Bioscience for 610,000 doses of SKYCovione, the first homegrown Covid-19 vaccine developed by the company.
National lot release is a mechanism that provides MFDS with a real-time system to continuously monitor product quality, through review and testing, of many biological products it regulates. Drugmakers can ship and sell their products if they receive national lot release.