I still believe we need to shift our thinking from COVID case counts to critical hospitalizations because the vaccines and prior infections are significantly reducing hospitalizations and deaths:
Daily COVID-19 cases fell to the three-thousand range for the first time in four weeks, but the number of critical cases remained above one-thousand for over a week.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday that three-thousand-865 new infections were reported throughout the previous day, raising the accumulated caseload to 615-thousand-532.
The daily figure dropped to the three-thousand range for the first time since November 30. It fell by about 340 from a day ago and over 13-hundred from a week ago. The fall is likely due to more booster shots and stepped-up social distancing rules.
However, the number of patients in serious or critical condition rose by 24 from the previous day to one-thousand-102, the second highest tally to date. The number remained above one-thousand for the eighth consecutive day.
KBS World
You can read more at the link, but when the metric of COVID effectiveness is 1,102 people in serious conditions at the hospital in a country of over 50 million it doesn’t appear to be as bad. It would be interesting to see how the 1,102 number compares to other hospitalizations such as car accidents, heart attacks, etc. to provide further context for decision makers.
The article also stated that total death is at 5,346 and that is a .87 death rate. That means people infected with COVID in South Korea have less than 1% chance of dying from the disease. Once again some useful context would be how does that percentage compare to other leading causes of death in South Korea?
We have already seen in China what an authoritarian government can do with this kind of technology. Fortunately South Korea is not an authoritarian government, but it doesn’t mean that someone in government would not be tempted to misuse this technology:
Controversy is arising over a city’s pilot project to combine AI-based facial recognition technology with thousands of surveillance cameras installed in the city to use in the contact tracing for COVID-19 patients.
Korea Times
While the city government expects that the new system will help carry out swifter and more accurate epidemiological investigations, civic groups have expressed concerns over breaches of privacy and infringements of the personal information of infected people.
Bucheon City Government in Gyeonggi Province is set to launch the project next month with funding from the Ministry of Science ICT. The local government received 1.6 billion won from the ministry, and allocated its own budget of 500 million won.
As one of the most populated cities in the metropolitan area with more than 800,000 residents, Bucheon has the highest density of CCTV surveillance cameras in the country, according to city officials. With nearly 10,000 installed, there are 123 cameras per square kilometer.
“The pilot project, if launched successfully, will drastically reduce the time and resources needed for the contact tracing of COVID-19 patients,” a city official in the Smart City Division, who is in charge of the project, told The Korea Times.
You can read more at the link.
The Korean left is suddenly worried about a drama distorting history. I wonder if the criticism of the show will actually drive up viewership?:
JTBC’s new series, “Snowdrop,” which was embroiled in a controversy over distorting history since before it even aired, has stirred up a further backlash, with viewers accusing the series of distorting the history of Korea’s pro-democracy movement.
Korea Times
Since it premiered on Saturday, the romance series, set in 1987 amid the period of political unrest, has faced growing calls for its cancellation, with some of the companies dropping their sponsorship of the show.
The series, starring K-pop star Jisoo of BLACKPINK and actor Jung Hae-in, follows a romance between a first-year student at a women’s university, Eun Young-ro (Jisoo), and a North Korean spy, Lim Soo-ho (Jung), who is hiding his identity under the cover of being a graduate student. One day, Soo-ho jumps into her dormitory covered in blood. Mistaking him as a pro-democracy protester against the military dictatorship, Young-ro tends to his injuries, despite the dangerous situation and develops romantic feelings for him.
On Sunday, an online petition was submitted on the Cheong Wa Dae website, calling for the network to stop the series from being aired. It garnered over 267,000 signatures in one day.
The petitioner pointed out that the series has diminished the history of the pro-democracy movement in the country by portraying a North Korean spy as a protestor.
You can read more at the link.
Here is the latest Korean-American making headlines:
The newly crowned Miss America has made history, becoming both the first Korean American and the first Alaskan to hold the title in the competition’s 100-year history.
Korea Times
”I never could have imagined in a million years that I would be Miss America, let alone that I would be Miss Alaska,” a beaming Emma Broyles told The Associated Press on Friday in a Zoom call from Connecticut, where she won the competition about 12 hours earlier.
In fact, she was sure they had it wrong. The final two contestants were Broyles and Lauren Bradford, Miss Alabama, and Broyles said she was thinking Bradford was going to make an amazing Miss America.
”And then they said Alaska, and I said, ‘No way. Are you sure? Do you want to check that card again?” she said before the emotion overtook her and she began crying tears of joy.
You can read more at the link.
I feel so bad for these kids having to deal with remote learning again:
– Schools in the capital area will resume remote learning this week as part of a government campaign aimed at stemming the fast spread of the coronavirus, officials said Sunday.
Under the latest rules, schools in the capital area and overly crowded schools in other parts of the country will roll back fully in-person classes and reintroduce a mix of in-person and virtual classes starting Monday.
Middle and high schools will be able to run at two-thirds capacity, while third- to sixth-grade elementary school classes will be able to run at 75 percent capacity.
Only first- and second-grade elementary school classes will continue to be held fully in-person.
Local education authorities in Seoul, however, adopted tighter rules, forcing elementary schools in the city to further limit in-person classes for third- to sixth-graders to 50 percent capacity, given that first- and second-graders are attending fully in-person classes.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Here is the latest restrictions to impact the public in South Korea:
South Korea will reduce the maximum private gathering size to four people nationwide and restore a 9 p.m. curfew on restaurant and cafe business hours, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Thursday, as the government rolled back its “living with COVID-19” scheme amid surging infections.
Under the new measures, which will be in effect from Saturday until Jan. 2, the use of restaurants and cafes will be restricted to up to four vaccinated people per visit. Those who have not been vaccinated will be able to use the facilities alone or request take-out or delivery, Kim said.
Bars, nightclubs and other entertainment venues will also be subject to the 9 p.m. curfew while movie theaters, concert halls and internet cafes, however, will be able to operate until 10 p.m., Kim said during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
