South Korea reported son highest number of Covid-19 deaths in a month on Tuesday as US health officials advised Americans to avoid travel in the struggling country with a fast-develop a surge of omicron.
The 61 deaths reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on Tuesday was highest daily count since reported 74 on On January 19, as the country emerged from an outbreak caused by the delta variant.
While omicron so far seems less likely to cause serious illness or death on the largest scale of the epidemic is fueling fears that hospitalizations and deaths could spike in coming weeks.
The 57,177 new cases reported by the KDCA was another one-daytime record and more than a 12-fold increase from observed levels in mid-January, when omicron became the dominant strain.
American centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated son travel advice for South Korea at level 4, the highest risk advising Americans to avoid travel in the country or do sure they are fully vaccinated if travel is required.
Park Hyang, a senior South Korean Ministry of Health official said the country’s hospital resources remain stable, with less than 27% of designated intensive care units for COVID-19[femininecurrentlybeingbusy[femininecurrentlyétantoccupé
Officials expressed cautious hope that the country’s high vaccination rate rate – with nearly 58% of a population of more over 51 millions having received booster shots – would prevent hospital systems from becoming deformed. They plan to start offer a fourth vaccination to people breastfeeding homes and other long-term care settings later this month.
“As long as I am not vaccinated people Account for only 6% of the population 12 years or older, these people counted for 62% of serious cases and 66.5% of the dead over the past eight weeks,” Park said during a briefing.
South Korea has reshaped its response to COVID-19 due to the unprecedented surge. It has eased quarantine restrictions considerably, so essential services won’t be disrupted by huge numbers of people in quarantine. More than 245,000 infected people were treated at home like of Tuesday, weeks after at-home the treatment was made the standard for mild or moderate cases.
The practices of test are also now focused on rapid antigen testing, with the more precise laboratory tests reserved mainly for high-risk groups. But there are worries that have infected people can falsely test negative and continue to stay out in publicwhich could aggravate the spread of the virus.
“Compared to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) laboratory tests, the test rapid antigen has limits in precision. Our new test policy is based on the idea that such limitations should be tolerated as a compromise for detect severe cases earlier amid major viral spread like this one,” Ministry of Health official said Son Youngrae.
