Number of New Daily Cases of COVID-19 Drops 15% from the Previous Week: Authorities Confirmed over 4,300 Cases This Day

[경향신문]

Jeon Hae-cheol (minister of the interior and safety), second assistant director at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, presides over a meeting to inspect the measures taken and plans by the COVID-19 disease control center and the vaccination promotion team at the Headquarters’ Seoul Situation Center in the government office building in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the morning of January 12. Courtesy of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety

The number of new daily cases of COVID-19 in South Korea dropped nearly 15% from the previous week. However, the number of new daily cases increased to exceed 4,000 for the first time in six days since January 6.

On January 12, Jeon Hae-cheol (minister of the interior and safety), second assistant director at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters said in his opening remark at the headquarters meeting, “In the past week (Jan. 5-11), the average number of new daily cases was 3,608, 15% down from the previous week (Dec. 29-Jan. 4), but today, we expect to confirm over 4,300 cases.”

He continued and explained, “Last week’s risk assessment showed that the danger was ‘medium’ in the Seoul metropolitan area and ‘low’ in other areas. We also confirmed clear signs of improvement in a number of disease control indicators, such as the reproduction rate of the virus, the number of patients with critical symptoms, and the hospital bed occupancy rate.”

As for the spread of the omicron variant, Jeon said, “The omicron strain is establishing itself as the dominant variant worldwide, and the number of cases detected in Korea is also increasing rapidly.” He further explained, “With rising concerns of the spread of the omicron variant, the government will thoroughly prepare responses in every area, including disease control, health care, and treatment.”

He said, “We will increase our capacity to conduct PCR tests from the current 750,000 cases a day to 850,000 cases, and also expand the scope of the rapid antigen testing.” He added, “We will also update our patient information system to quickly and accurately sort patients.” The minister explained, “We will connect the various information systems operated individually at each stage, such as contact tracing and patient history management, with the medical information system in the public health centers nationwide at the center and integrate and use the patients’ data.”

Jeon also said, “The COVID-19 pills by Pfizer for 20,000 patients will arrive tomorrow,” and added, “The government will hire a professional drug distribution firm to quickly deliver the pills to 280 exclusive pharmacies and 91 living treatment centers nationwide. We plan to first prescribe the pills to patients with weak immune systems and older adults ages 65 and older in living treatment centers or in their homes who have mild to moderate symptoms within five days after they first show symptoms.”

He continued and said, “Since the supply of covid treatment pills will increase in the first quarter, we will expand the scope of prescriptions focusing on people ages 60 and older and people with underlying diseases, who are at risk of developing serious symptoms.”