◀ anchor ▶
In order to respond to the explosive spread of Omicron, the government has decided to lower the prescription for medicines taken by the government from the current age of 60 to over 50.
In addition, the period for a confirmed patient to be treated at home will be shortened from 10 days to a week.
Then, reporter Lim So-jeong reports.
◀ Report ▶
Pfizer’s oral corona treatment, Paxrovid, when administered to mildly ill patients, prevents it from progressing to severe disease.
Prime Minister Kim Bu-gyeom announced that he is considering a plan to lower the target of taking oral medicines from the current 60-year-old to 50-year-old or older.
He emphasized that as a result of taking the drug for 200 people, the effect of not going to severe symptoms has been clearly proven.
If the target of taking medicines for people over 50 years old is expanded, it is expected that the number of critically ill patients due to the spread of Omicron will decrease and the medical response system will be able to operate stably.
The third dose of COVID-19 has exceeded 50% of the population today.
The government said that the third vaccination is a powerful way to prevent infection with Omicron and severe seriousness, and that it will continue to be vaccinated over the Lunar New Year holiday.
[박향/중앙사고수습본부 방역총괄반장]
“The elderly aged 60 and over (the proportion of confirmed cases) are maintaining a low level of 7.1%. This is considered as a result of the increase in the 3rd dose rate among the elderly to 84.9%.”
We also decided to streamline the management of in-home care, which is increasing along with the surge in confirmed cases.
[박향/중앙사고수습본부 방역총괄반장]
“Currently, there are about 32,000 patients receiving home treatment. Of these, patients newly assigned to home treatment yesterday accounted for 70% of the total number of placements.”
Starting tomorrow, the home treatment period from 10 days will be shortened to 7 days, and the number of health monitoring will be reduced from a maximum of 3 times to 2 for high-risk groups and 1 for low-risk groups.
In addition, in preparation for the occurrence of 20,000 confirmed cases per day, we are preparing to provide home treatment for up to 110,000 people by increasing the number of home treatment managed medical institutions to more than 400.
This is Sojung Lim from MBC News.
Video coverage: Jung Woo-young / Video editing: Park Hye-rin
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