Category: Korea-General Topics

It appears that South Korea’s current COVID wave has not yet hit its plateau as cases continue to grow to record levels after the Lunar New Year holiday:

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 infections rose sharply to hit another high of nearly 50,000 on Wednesday amid the fast spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant across the nation.

The country reported 49,567 new COVID-19 infections, including 49,402 local cases, raising the total to 1,131,248, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

It marked the first time that the daily tally exceeded the 40,000 level. The previous daily record high was 38,689 recorded Sunday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but according to the article health authorities say cases could peak at 170,000 by the end of the month. However, as this current wave is showing the cases are not necessarily important it is the hospitalizations which so far South Korea has been able to effectively manage.

This new record shouldn’t be a surprise considering South Korea just came out of a major holiday:

South Korea’s daily virus cases hit another high Sunday, exceeding 38,000, as the highly transmissible omicron variant rages across the country following a holiday season.

The country reported 38,691 new COVID-19 infections, including 38,502 local cases, raising the total to 1,009,688, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The accumulated virus caseload surpassed 1 million on Sunday, two years after the country reported its first COVID-19 case.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

At some point the case rates need to stop being the metric to judge how effectively governments are handling the pandemic:

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases exceeded 18,000 for the first time Tuesday, since the first local case emerged two years ago, due to spread of the omicron variant during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The country reported 18,343 new COVID-19 infections, including 18,123 local cases, raising the total to 864,042 the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Daily infections jumped after reporting more than 17,000 cases for the past three days through Monday. (…..)

The death toll from COVID-19 came to 6,772, up 17 from the previous day. The fatality rate was 0.78 percent. 

The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients was 272, down five from a day earlier.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but last week the mortality rate was .84 compared to this week with a .78 percent rate.

South Korea has not reached its peak yet for COVID cases and this latest record will likely only grow:

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases reached yet another record high Friday, as the country grapples with the rapid spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant with a new nationwide virus response system set to come into force. 

The country reported 16,096 new COVID-19 infections, including 15,894 local cases, raising the total to 793,582, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. 

The daily count broke the record for the fourth consecutive day, spiking from 8,570 on Tuesday. The per day figures have more than quadrupled since Jan. 17, when the tally hovered around 3,800. 

The death toll from COVID-19 came to 6,678, up 24 from Thursday. The fatality rate stood at 0.84 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the fatality rate is remaining very low and the .84% number is probably even lower when taking into account the new of COVID cases that are not detected in the population.

Just like nearby Japan, South Korea has reached a new record for daily new COVID cases:

South Korea’s daily coronavirus cases hit a record high of 8,571 on Tuesday, driven by the fast spread of the new dominant omicron variant, as the country is set to put in force revised virus curbs to rein in the highly transmissible variant.

Tuesday’s cases, including 8,356 local infections, took the total caseload to 749,979, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. 

It marks the first time the daily caseload has surpassed the 8,000 mark since the country reported the first COVID-19 infection on Jan. 20, 2020. The previous all-time high was 7,848 on Dec. 15 last year.

South Korea has seen the daily counts skyrocket over the past week, from 3,857 on Jan. 17 to 7,513 reported Monday. 

The death toll from COVID-19 came to 6,588, up 23 from Monday. The fatality rate stood at 0.88 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but with the Lunar New Year holiday coming up it will likely rise to a much higher level before eventually declining.

This is an unusual deal, good on South Korea for being trusted to do important work like this:

South Korea said Sunday it has signed a deal with Egypt to dismantle and restore the gateway of an ancient temple in the Egyptian city of Luxor.

South Korea plans to begin restoring the pylon and refurbish the access road of the Ramesseum, a mortuary temple of Pharaoh Ramses II, starting next year, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration.

The move came as Mostafa Waziry, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, requested the Cultural Heritage Administration to restore the Ramesseum during senior-level talks on Thursday.

On Friday, the two sides inked a memorandum of understanding during President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Cairo.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the omicron variant has become the dominant strain in South Korea now judging the by the increasing case numbers despite enhanced social distancing measures being implemented:

 South Korea’s daily coronavirus cases on Sunday spiked to the second-largest figure since the pandemic outbreak, putting health authorities on alert amid the fast spread of the omicron variant.

The country added 7,630 new COVID-19 infections, including 7,343 local infections, raising the total caseload to 733,902, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Sunday’s figure marks the second-largest tally since the daily record high of 7,848 on Dec. 15.

The daily tally surged at a fast pace last week from the 4,000 level to over 6,000 on Thursday and above 7,000 on Saturday, nearly doubling in less than a week.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but despite the increasing cases the Korean government has decided to lower the quarantine period from 10 to 7 days. This is arguably because too many people are being put out of work for too long thus impacting the economy.