Korean health officials expressed concerns about the newly detected BA.7, an Omicron subvariant, despite Korea's daily Covid-19 cases showing signs of decline.
"After the first BF.7 case in August, authorities have confirmed 15 cases so far," Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) said. "About 10,000 cases of BF.7 mutation were confirmed in Europe and the U.S."
However, in Germany, France, and Belgium, where the spread of BF.7 variant is intensifying, the death toll continues to decrease despite the number of confirmed cases increasing over the last two to three weeks, the CDCH said.
According to quarantine officials, the BF.7 subvariant has about one additional mutation in the spike protein compared to the BA.5 mutation.
As the BF.7 mutation is a recently classified mutation, there has not been much research on its characteristics. However, as the subvariant has shown immunity evasion traits, the government stressed that it would continuously monitor domestic and foreign cases.
Meanwhile, the BA.5 subvariant still remains the dominant strain in Korea.
As of last week, the detection rate of the BA.5 subvariant was 93.3 percent in the analysis of the detection rate of the sub-system of Omicron, slightly lower than the previous week's 95.8 percent.
The detection rate of BA.2.75, dubbed "Centaurus," the most contagious Omicron subvariant with greater immune-avoiding properties than BA.5., was 3.1 percent, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous week.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) also stressed that it is closely watching the rise of BA.2.75.2, which is a mutation derived from the BA.2.75. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of Sept. 26, there were 732 confirmed cases worldwide.
On Wednesday, Korea added 34,739 new Covid-19 infections, including 69 cases from abroad, bringing the total caseload to 24,882,894, according to the KDCA.
While Tuesday's count is up from 16,423 reported on Monday, it was a significant drop from 36,139 a week earlier.
The nation also reported 16 more Covid-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 28,544. The fatality rate stood at 0.11 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 333, down 20 from the previous day.
During a parliamentary audit of the KDCA, the agency's commissioner Peck Kyong-ran stressed that the agency expects that the declining daily Covid-19 trend will continue for the time being.
"By the middle of this month, we expect that the number of confirmed cases will reach 10,000 to 20,000, and the death toll to about 10 per day," Peck said. "A resurgence is expected between December and March."
Regarding the KDCA's plans to administer additional vaccination during the winter period using an improved vaccine that responds to Omicron mutation, Peck stressed that in line with the supply and demand of the bivalent vaccine, the KDCA will expand its target to the second priority group -- 50s and patients with underlying diseases -- and third priority group -- adults over 18 years old – as soon as possible.
According to the KDCA, about 44.68 million among 52 million Koreans have been fully vaccinated. In addition, about 33.6 million people had received their first booster shots, and 7.45 million had their second booster shots.