On the 23rd, the day after the five-day Chuseok holiday, the number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 recorded an all-time high of 2,434. This record was also immediately broken. On the 24th, a total of 2,924 people, including 1,223, were confirmed in Seoul alone from 0 am to 9 pm. It is the first time in one year and eight months since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Seoul that there were more than 1,000 confirmed cases per day. As of 00:00 on the 25th, the number of new confirmed cases is certain to exceed 3,000. It’s a terrifying pace of growth. This is not the end. Quarantine authorities anticipate that the number of confirmed cases will increase further next week, when the effects of the holiday season are in full swing. The government, which has become urgent, has begun hastening preparations for ‘With Corona (step-by-step recovery of daily life)’.
They said “the peak of 2300 people on the 20th”… it was wrong
According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on the 24th, there were 5.4 confirmed cases per 100,000 people in the metropolitan area in the last week (18th to 24th). Seoul had 7.2, Incheon 4.6, and Gyeonggi 4.2. The quarantine authorities diagnosed that “the scale of the epidemic is very large and continues to increase.”
The impact of the Chuseok holiday shift has not yet been fully revealed. “The number of confirmed cases may increase tomorrow,” said Lee Ki-il, the first commander of the major headquarters. In a situation where there are many hidden infections in the community, concerns that the virus will spread due to travel and meetings during the holidays have come true sooner than expected.
At the beginning of this month, the government predicted that the number of confirmed cases would peak at 2,300 on the 20th and decrease if vaccination is expanded while maintaining the intensity of quarantine. But the outlook was completely wrong. After the holiday, the number of confirmed cases has been on the rise, and the expected peak has already been far exceeded.
Loose quarantine network… “If 2500 confirmed cases continue, medical burden”
The reason the spread is growing out of control is because the number of patients who have escaped the quarantine network is increasing. The rate of ‘investigation route investigation’ among new confirmed cases in the past four weeks, where they could not find where they were infected, rose from 33.3% to 33.6% to 36.3% to 39.8%, approaching 40%. This means that epidemiological investigations cannot keep up with the rate of outbreaks. In addition, the ‘management rate within the quarantine network’, which refers to the proportion of new confirmed cases confirmed in self-quarantine, fell from 35.3% → 33.6% → 32.5% → 29.9% during the same period. The quarantine network that prevents further transmission while locating and managing contacts of confirmed patients has been loosened.
Authorities attribute the cause to a delta mutation. Because it is three times more contagious than the existing Corona 19 virus, if you are infected with the delta mutation, you can infect others two days before symptoms appear. This is the reason why the government is appealing to be actively tested if you have moved to another area during the holidays or if there is any abnormality in your body.
If the number of confirmed cases increases, I am concerned about the number of beds right now. At a regular briefing held on the same day, the central government said that it would be able to respond even if there were 3,000 new confirmed cases a day, as it issued an executive order to hospitals in the metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas to prepare beds for COVID-19. However, not so long ago, the authorities had said that the burden on the medical system would be greatly increased if 2,500 patients a day continued to occur.
On the afternoon of the 8th, officials are inspecting the mobile negative pressure ward facilities at the Gyeonggi-do No. 2 Special Living Treatment Center, which was prepared at the indoor gymnasium of the Gyeonggi Human Resources Development Center in Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Gyeonggi Photo Foundation
805 people are being treated at home…”Weed Corona Public Hearing”
On the way home from the US visit, President Moon Jae-in said, “If the vaccination completion rate exceeds 70%, we need to review the With Corona virus. However, if the number of confirmed cases continues to increase, the application period for With Corona may be farther away. Prime Minister Kim Bu-gyeom said in a speech at the main headquarters meeting this morning, “If the quarantine is not managed stably, the gradual recovery of daily life will inevitably be delayed.”
First of all, I started to speed up from home treatment. According to the main script, 679 people in the metropolitan area and 126 people in non-metropolitan areas (Daejeon, Gangwon, Chungbuk, Chungnam, Sejong, Jeju) are receiving home treatment. Among the confirmed cases under the age of 50 in households with three or fewer people who have no symptoms or are weak, if essential living spaces such as bathrooms and bedrooms are separated, you can apply for home treatment to the local government. The government plans to make home treatment possible in all 17 local governments across the country.
The government has started preparing for a specific With Corona plan. It plans to hold debates and public hearings to listen to the opinions of not only experts but also the public. Choi Jae-wook, a professor at the Department of Preventive Medicine at Korea University College of Medicine, advised, “We need to provide enough support for manpower to expand home treatment and talk to the public about how to manage COVID-19 at the level of the flu.”
Park So-young reporter sosyoung@hankookilbo.com
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