Tag: COVID-19

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.

It only took a month, but the Moon administration has decided to not move forward with the next steps in its Living with COVID strategy:

President Moon Jae-in said Monday that the government will halt a further easing of social distancing rules amid spiking COVID-19 infections, and speed up the administration of booster shots and secure more hospital beds over the next four weeks. 

Moon made the remarks while presiding over a COVID-19 response meeting, making it clear that the government will not wind down its first-phase measures aimed at returning to normalcy despite a jump in serious cases and infections, and concerns about the omicron variant.

“Hospital beds are in a tight supply as the number of new patients and critically ill patients is on the rise,” Moon said. “However, we can’t retreat to the past by reversing the gradual return to normal life.” 

South Korea has seen a sharp jump in daily coronavirus infections after the government started its first phase of the “living with COVID-19” scheme this month.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration was going to further reduce COVID protocols in December as part of its Living with COVID strategy. However, the rise in serious cases and deaths has put a halt to their timeline. The government is going to instead focus on booster shots and getting more hospital beds available.

It is going to be interesting to see if the Moon administration will continue its living with COVID strategy with the various record highs in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths:

South Korea’s new coronavirus cases fell below 4,000 on Thursday, a day after hitting an all time-high of 4,115. But critical cases and deaths climbed to fresh highs, fueling worries about the virus spread ahead of another pandemic winter.

The country reported 3,938 new COVID-19 cases, including 3,917 local infections, raising the total caseload to 429,002, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Critically ill patients hit an all-time high of 612, up 26 from the previous record set a day earlier. The same figure averaged 498 for the seven days ending Sunday.

The country added 39 more deaths from COVID-19, the highest number since the start of the fourth wave of the pandemic in July, bringing the death toll to 3,401, with the fatality rate standing at 0.79 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I think the numbers will eventually go down because my theory is that the lockdowns mitigated people who conduct high risk activity in places like bars and Noraebangs from getting sick. With the restrictions lifted I think these people conducting high risk activities are getting sick. Eventually the growth in case numbers from this high risk population will be reduced due to prior infection and thus an overall reduction in case numbers. South Korea is getting bad press right now but give it a few weeks and I think eventually the cases will go down.

It looks like we are going to find out how committed the ROK government is to their new “Living with COVID” strategy as cases continue to rise:

South Korea’s daily new coronavirus cases spiked to surpass the 3,000 mark Wednesday, just shy of an all-time high, health authorities said, deepening concerns over medical capacity amid the continued surge in critical cases.

The country reported 3,187 new COVID-19 cases, including 3,163 local infections, raising the total caseload to 402,775, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). 

Wednesday’s figure, a sharp hike from 2,125 cases the previous day, is the second-largest figure after the all-time high of 3,270 reported on Sept. 25. It is also the second time ever that the country’s daily caseload hovered over 3,000.

The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients hit an all-time high of 522 on Wednesday, breaking the previous record of 495 a day earlier, the KDCA said.

The health authorities earlier said that they can manage around up to 500 critically ill patients in a stable manner under the current medical capacity.

The country added 21 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 3,158. The fatality rate stood at 0.78 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

According to the article kids were going to the CDC sick which is what likely caused the outbreak:

Thirteen people, including nearly a dozen children, linked to an on-base children’s center recently tested positive for the coronavirus respiratory disease, an official at the center said Tuesday. 

At least 11 children and two staff members from the Capt. Jennifer M. Moreno School Age Center on Humphreys tested positive within the past week, center coordinator Tiffany Harris told Stars and Stripes by phone. Around 178 children in grades one through five are enrolled in the center, which employs 24 people.

The center, which provides children with after-school programs, was closed Friday for cleaning and sanitizing; it reopened Monday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but if we learned anything from this pandemic it is to not send your sick kid to school or if you are sick don’t go to work.

I wonder how long this is going to last? Will it be shutdown if another COVID wave breaks out in Singapore?:

The first tourists from Singapore since the start of the coronavirus pandemic arrived Monday in South Korea under a bilateral travel bubble agreement.

A travel bubble refers to a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases.

The tourists landed at Incheon International Airport earlier in the day and will be free to travel around the country without quarantine if they test negative on a polymerase chain reaction test, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said.

Among them, a group of Singaporeans working in the tourism industry and reporters were invited by KTO to visit major tourist attractions in the greater Seoul area and Gangwon Province this week.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

That didn’t take long, just a week ago the Korean government was saying it was no longer going to use case numbers to make COVID decisions. The Health and Welfare Ministry even said that cases would not matter if they even reached 10,000 a day. Now that case numbers have hit 2,500 they are backtracking:

 South Korea may not further ease its coronavirus restrictions, the country’s top public health official warned Thursday, amid a spike in COVID-19 cases.

South Korea began easing virus curbs in November in the first of the three-phase “living with COVID-19” scheme. It had planned to move to the second phase in mid-December after a two-week evaluation period.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said it may be difficult to move to the second phase of the scheme if new cases continue to grow.

The country reported 2,520 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload to 388,351, the KDCA said.

Thursday’s tally marked a slight hike from the previous day’s 2,425, which marked the first time in six days that daily infections exceeded 2,400.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.