A commuter walks past information boards on display reminding the public of how to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Seoul on Wednesday.
Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images
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Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images
A commuter walks past information boards on display reminding the public of how to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Seoul on Wednesday.
Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images
South Korea’s return to normal life has come to a halt with rapidly increasing COVID-19 infections. Health authorities announced Friday that they are tightening coronavirus restrictions, after the number of daily new cases in the country doubled in the past month.
Private gatherings in the capital area will be limited to six people starting Monday, and proof of vaccinations or a negative PCR test will be required at restaurants, cafes and libraries. , museums and cinemas.
These are the first adjustments to social measures since the country began its long-awaited transition to a new phase of pandemic response in early November and lifted most of it. Restrictions.
The measures are not as strict as they were before the transition. They do, however, epitomize the country’s struggle to continue to return to normal in the face of emerging challenges – an increasing number of disruptive infections and new viral variants.
The number of daily new cases in South Korea topped 5,000 for the first time on Tuesday, while the number of deaths and critically ill patients both hit record highs in the past week. Hospital beds in the capital, which account for about 75% of all infections, are almost at full capacity.
Sohn Young-rae, director of social strategy at South Korea’s Ministry of Health, said last week that although the increase in the total number of infections was still within the expectations of health authorities, the number of critical cases “significantly higher than we expected”.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rapid increase has resulted in a shorter-than-expected period of protection from the vaccine in the elderly, who were among the first to get the vaccine. . The agency found that immunity begins to fade after three to four months for people 60 and older.
According to the KDCA, 86% of patients with recent diagnosis and 57.5% of patients with critical symptoms were of fully immunized age. The rate of spike infections among people aged 50 and over has increased markedly since mid-October.
The government has rushed to order more people to get booster shots in the past few weeks, shorten the time between the second shot and the booster shot, and mandate it for all adults. It also imposes a six-month expiration date on vaccine passports. As of Friday, 6.6% of the population had received a booster shot.
Meanwhile, the country confirmed its first Omicron cases on Wednesday. A total of six cases have been confirmed as of Friday and the tally is likely to increase as contact tracing gets underway.
Although currently little is known about the new variant, omicron, South Korea responded to concerns about its higher transmission by restricting entry from nine African countries and requiring all Visitors coming from abroad must quarantine for 10 days, regardless of their vaccine status.
“We are in a double crisis with not only the Delta variant but also the Omicron,” KDCA director Jeong Eun-kyung told the nation on Thursday. “We will go back to the mindset we had at the beginning of the pandemic to get through this crisis.”
