Covid-19 crisis to be downgraded to lowest 'attention' level starting in May

The Covid-19 crisis level will be downgraded to the lowest,“attention,” of the four-tier crisis alert system next month, the government said.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Friday that t after two rounds of expert consultations in January and April, most experts assessed that a downgrade of the country's crisis level is possible.

Accordingly, the government will downgrade the country's Covid-19 crisis level to the lowest one, “attention,” on May 1. The four levels of crisis alert are attention, caution, warning, and serious. 

With the downgrade, the mandatory wearing of masks in hospital-level medical institutions and preemptive testing for residents of vulnerable facilities will be converted to recommendations.

The current five-day isolation recommendation for confirmed cases will be relaxed, similar to influenza. People with Covid-19 can now return to normal activities after a day of observation if their main symptoms, such as cough and fever, improve.

Asymptomatic testing will no longer be subsidized, considering the quarantine situation where asymptomatic screening is unnecessary. However, the government will continue to provide health insurance support for tests for those who must take drugs when symptoms occur, including older adults 60 and more.

Some co-payments will be charged before the drugs are covered by health insurance. Still, free support will continue for medical benefit recipients and those eligible for reduced out-of-pocket expenses.

"Friday’s meeting marked the end of a long journey of four years and three months since the Covid-19 Central Incident Management Headquarters was formed in January 2020," KDCA Commissioner Jee Young-mee said. "With the downgrading of the crisis stage, the operations of the Central Incident Management Headquarters and the Central Quarantine Countermeasure Headquarters will end, but we will ensure that there is no gap in the response through the operation of the Covid-19 Task Force within the KDCA."