Category: Korea-General Topics

South Korea’s surge in COVID cases just continues to get worse:

 South Korea’s new coronavirus cases hit an all-time high on Wednesday as infections continued to surge around the country amid waning immunity and colder weather.

The country confirmed 7,175 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total caseload to 489,484, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). 

The daily tally was up by 2,221 from a day earlier, the biggest daily jump since the pandemic began early last year. The previous record of 5,352 was set on Saturday. The average daily infection cases were 5,012 for the seven days ending Tuesday.

Infections were rising especially among older adults who suffer a drop in vaccine efficacy and children who have yet to receive their first shots, according to the KDCA. 

The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients also jumped to a record high of 840, up 66 from a day ago, putting further strain on the country’s already overwhelmed health care system. More than 83 percent of them were aged over 60.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but with waning efficacy of vaccine shots it makes me wonder if the Moon administration will eventually require booster shots in order to enter certain businesses?

By the way something that continues to be very unusual is how in Japan, just a short distance away the seven day daily COVID case average is 107 in a country with well over double to population of the ROK.

Here is some possible good news that the Biden administration may not actually be preparing to go along with the Moon administration’s attempt to declare an end to the Korean War:

American officials have started calling the end-of-war declaration, a signature diplomatic goal of the Moon Jae-in administration, an end-of-war statement, which may not be good news for Seoul.  
   
“’Declaration’ or ‘statement,’ what really matters is what is stated inside,” a former diplomat told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday. “But still, calling it a statement instead of a declaration does appear to lower its official standing.”  
   
Semantics are always important in diplomacy, and this choice of words seems to signify a reluctance by the U.S. to sign on to the idea, or its intention to downplay it.   
   
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was one of the first to refer to the declaration as a statement on Nov. 17. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The Moon administration is messing with the hagwons, watch out there is going to be some angry ajummas:

Students and parents are protesting the government’s new vaccine pass system, saying it infringes upon adolescents’ right not to get vaccinated.    
   
Starting Monday, Korea’s vaccine pass systemwas expanded to hagwon (cram school) libraries, PC bang (internet cafes), public study rooms, movie theatres, restaurants and cafes — but only for adults using them.    
   
From Feb. 1, 12 to 18-year-olds — people born between the years 2003 and 2009 — will require vaccine passes to enter those places, unless they submit a negative PCR test that was conducted within the previous 48 hours, according to the Central Disaster Management Headquarters’ briefing Friday.    
   
In protest, an 18-year-old student in Daegu filed an online petition on the Blue House website Nov. 26, writing that the regulation is discriminatory against students and their right to an education.   (…..)

“The government has decided to more strongly advise vaccinations for minors because the situation has grown that much more dangerous over the past month,” said Son Young-rae, senior epidemiological strategist at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters.  
   
“As the necessity grew for more people to be vaccinated, we have decided to expand the vaccine pass system to include individuals from ages 12 to 18.”  
   
Son added that the infection rate for Covid among minors surpassed that for adults over the last four weeks.  
   
According to the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, 99.7 out of every 100,000 minors were infected from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1, compared to 76.9 out of every 100,000 adults.    
   
Yet, teens and their parents say that requiring a vaccine pass in places like hagwon, which are considered essential facilities for nearly all middle and high school students in Korea, is unfair.    
   
“Enforcing a vaccine pass system in hagwon is a violation of the children’s right to learn,” said Ms. Lee, 47, a mother of two in Seongbuk District, central Seoul.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Remember when the Moon administration said that they didn’t care if cases hit 10,000 when they began their “Living with COVID” strategy. It didn’t take long for them to back away from this strategy and the cases were no where near 10,000:

South Korea’s new coronavirus cases fell below 5,000 for the first time in three days Monday as the country reimposed toughened social distancing rules amid concerns over the spread of the omicron variant.

The country added 4,325 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total caseload to 477,358, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). 

Daily infections soared to a record high of 5,352 cases on Saturday before falling to 5,127 on Sunday. 

On Monday, the government began four-week stricter social distancing rules to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus and the omicron variant.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the couple that contracted South Korea’s first cases of Omicron could face legal troubles:

A couple, who tested positive for the omicron coronavirus variant for the first time in South Korea, was found to have lied about how they went home from the airport upon return from Nigeria, leaving dozens of people exposed to the risk of infection.

The couple — a pastor and his wife in their 40s — initially told health authorities they took one of the officially designated infection-proof “quarantine” taxies to return home from Incheon International Airport on Nov. 24.

But it was found later that a friend of the couple, a Uzbek national, drove them home in a private vehicle. That left the friend out of health authorities’ radar even after the couple tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 25.

The friend moved around without any restrictions for six days, coming into contact with 87 people, including family, friends and co-workers, and putting them at risk of COVID-19 infection. He later tested positive for the new variant.

Officials said two of them — his wife and his mother-in-law — have been categorized as suspected omicron cases and an investigation is under way. 

Health authorities said they are mulling over the option of filing charges of infectious disease prevention law violations against the couple, saying “their false statement left the Uzbek man uncategorized as those who came in close contact with COVID-19 patients.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I once talked to a contract tracer that said people lying to them is actually quite common. For example I would not be surprised if this Uzbek national that picked them up at the airport may have immigration issues. If so the couple may have lied to protect him.

Here is some good news for small business owners in South Korea:

South Korea is unlikely to reimpose tighter social distancing rules despite surging COVID-19 infections, as the government is set to announce new measures to help tame the latest wave of infections, a senior presidential official said Thursday. 

The new measures will be announced Friday as the nation is battling to contain virus infections, with daily cases standing at a record high of more than 5,200 earlier in the day. 

“Rather than a drastic tightening of distancing rules, (the government) will announce measures on how to fine-tune (current measures),” Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for communication, told a KBS YouTube channel.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

President Moon continues to push hard for an end of war declaration for the Korean War before he exits office early next year:

The scheduled visit to China by President Moon Jae-in’s top security advisor is widely believed to be seeking Beijing’s support and cooperation for the President’s proposal of declaring an official end to the Korean War. However, experts say it remains to be seen how actively China will work on the issue, given the complex geopolitical situation.

Cheong Wa Dae said, Wednesday, that National Security Advisor Suh Hoon will visit Tianjin from Thursday to Friday for talks with his Chinese counterparts, at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party’s head of foreign affairs, Yang Jiechi.

The presidential office said that Suh’s trip will be a reciprocal visit for Yang’s visit to Busan in August last year, and the two will discuss, “South Korea-China relations, Korean Peninsula issues, regional and international affairs and other topics of mutual interests.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.