The BN.1 subvariant is becoming the new dominant strain in Korea, as the subvariant detection rate increased to 46.3 percent of the total Covid-19 cases last week, up 7.1 percentage points from the previous week, health authorities said.

According to the government, the BN.1 variant is a subvariant reclassified from BA.2.75, and its detection rate is 44.7 percent faster than BA.5.2.

With the detection rate of BN.1 close to 50 percent, it will soon replace the BA.5, the previous dominant strain, health officials predicted. As of last week, the detection rate for BA.5 among the entire caseload was 22 percent.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on Thursday, the number of new confirmed cases in the third week of January (1.15-1.21) was 208,638, a decrease of 30.6 percent from the previous week.

The weekly average daily number of confirmed cases was 29,805, and the R0, or an estimated reproductive rate of how many people may contract the virus from one infected person, was 0.77, remaining less than 1 for three consecutive weeks.

Quarantine authorities stressed that they do not believe that this Lunar New Year holiday will not have an impact enough to reverse the recent trend of declining epidemics.

Despite the number of new confirmed cases decreasing, reinfection cases showed an upward trend.

The proportion of presumed reinfection cases during the second week of January (1.8-1.14) was 21.48 percent, up 1.56 percentage points from the previous week (19.92 percent).

This was the first time the weekly reinfection rate exceeded 20 percent.

As of Jan. 15, of the 28,343,259 cumulative confirmed cases, the estimated reinfection cases were 1,272,122, which is a cumulative rate of 4.46 percent.

Meanwhile, as the obligation to wear a mask indoors will be converted to a voluntary recommendation from Monday, the public is paying close attention to whether the government will adjust the mandatory seven-day quarantine for confirmed patients.

Regarding the matter, quarantine authorities announced that they would consider adjusting the quarantine obligation if Korea and the global Covid-19 crisis level are lowered.

The authorities will likely hold additional meetings after the World Health Organization (WHO) makes a decision on whether to adjust the Covid-19 international public health emergency, which has been in place since the end of January 2020, on Friday.

“Discussions on the adjustment of quarantine obligations are currently suspended as summer and winter recurrences continue,” said Im Sook-young, a senior official at the Central Disease Control Headquarters. “The government will comprehensively review quarantine obligation when the WHO lifts the public health emergency and Korea also adjusts the crisis stage.”

On Thursday, Korea added 35,096 new Covid-19 infections, including 34 cases from abroad, bringing the total caseload to 30,075,652, according to the KDCA.

The nation also reported 26 more Covid-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 33,296. The number of critically ill patients reached 489, up seven from the previous day.