At this point I don’t even know what the point of publishing daily case counts are now. Authorities should instead just publish hospitalizations and deaths:
South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases hit a fresh record of 56,431 on Sunday, as the highly transmissible omicron variant continued to spread quickly across the nation.
The fresh cases, including 56,297 local infections, raised the country’s total caseload to 1,350,630, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The latest figure marks the fourth day in a row with daily infections above the 50,000 level. A total of 54,941 cases were reported Saturday. (………..)
The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients was 288, up 13 from a day earlier, the KDCA said. The daily tally has stayed in the 200s for 16 days in a row.
The number of patients receiving at-home treatment also rose to an all-time high of 214,869.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section. Any predictions on who wins the Super Bowl?
South Korea shows you can still hold a national election during a pandemic without relying on mail in voting:
A parliamentary panel on Thursday passed a bill to allow COVID-19 patients and people in quarantine to vote from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on the day of the March 9 presidential election after regular polling closes.
The revision to the Public Official Election Act passed the National Assembly’s special political reform committee.
In order to cast their votes, virus patients and quarantined people need to get temporary leave permits from health authorities.
However, quarantined people living in rural areas with mobility difficulties are permitted to cast their votes before 6 p.m.
The bill will now go through the parliamentary legislation and judiciary committee before being put to a vote at a plenary session of the National Assembly next Monday.
The revision came amid concerns that the ongoing virus situation may prevent hundreds of thousands people from casting their ballots on election day.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Considering the Blue House’s very strong response to Yoon’s comments I think it is an indication they are worried about being investigated if he does win the Presidency:
President Moon Jae-in on Thursday demanded an apology from main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol for remarks that he will launch a probe into alleged corruption of the current administration if he is elected.
Moon expressed “strong resentment” over Yoon’s remarks and criticized the candidate for attacking the current administration with “groundless” allegations, according to Park Soo-hyun, senior secretary for public communication.
It was rare for Moon to directly respond to remarks by Yoon. To maintain political neutrality ahead of the March vote, the presidential office has kept a low profile over allegations raised by Yoon or other presidential candidates.
Yoon made the remark in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo daily published Wednesday, saying he will launch an investigation into “deep-rooted evils” of the Moon Jae-in administration if he wins the March 9 presidential election.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but Yoon is clearly trying to rally the conservative base before the election that is upset that the Moon administration jailed the two former conservative Presidents. For the good of the country though Yoon if elected needs to stop the political prosecution of former Presidents.
At this point corruption and Olympics should be considered synonyms. Has anyone seen the Netflix series Icarus? At least this Olympics appears so far to not reach any where near that level of corruption:
The Chinese Embassy in Seoul expressed “grave concern” Wednesday over the accusations of favorable judging for the Chinese team in a short track speed skating competition of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Two South Korean skaters — Lee June-seo and Hwang Dae-heon — were disqualified in the semifinals of the men’s 1,000-meter race Monday night, with Chinese competitors reaching the finals.
It caused an uproar among many South Koreans, as they regard the short track speed skating judges as having been biased in favor of the Chinese team.
In a statement posted on its social messaging account, the embassy took issue with criticism by “some South Korean media outlets and politicians.”
“We can’t help expressing grave concern and proclaim a strict position,” its spokesperson stated.
Now that it is a “technical” issue, it should be handled by a professional and authoritative institution, the official noted.
“However, some South Korean media and politicians have criticized the Chinese government and Beijing Olympics as a whole, even instigating anti-Chinese sentiment, worsening the public sentiment of the two countries and drawing a backlash from Chinese online users,” read the statement.
It stressed that China can never accept such “irresponsible” behavior.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
So who thinks this is actually going to happen?
The U.S. Army plans to install a microgrid on all its installations by 2035, field fully electric tactical vehicles by 2050, and ensure all operational and strategic exercises and simulations consider climate change risks and threats by 2028.
These are just a few of the goals the service outlined in its new climate strategy, published Feb. 8.
“The climate strategy is important to address the changing climate and the threats that are coming from climate change — both how our forces operate in a climate-altered world, but what the Army can do to influence this and to mitigate our greenhouse gases and to reduce the effects of climate change,” Paul Farnan, the Army’s acting assistant secretary for installations, energy and environment, told Defense News in a Feb. 7 interview.
Army Times
You can read more at the link, but notice how these initiatives are always pushed out to some far off date like 2050.
