Health authorities say Covid resurgence too early to call as cases spike

Health authorities said Wednesday that it was still too early to declare a coronavirus resurgence in Korea despite a five-fold increase in hospitalized Covid-19 patients in just a single month.

A worker at a convenience store in Seoul places at-home Covid test kits on a stall on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

Health authorities said Wednesday that it was still too early to declare a coronavirus resurgence in Korea despite a five-fold increase in hospitalized Covid-19 patients in just a single month.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on Wednesday, 465 patients were admitted to some 220 hospitals nationwide for Covid infections in the fourth week of July. The figure was 91 in the first week of July but jumped to 148 and 225 in the second and third weeks, respectively.

Yang Jin-seon, a division head of infectious disease control, said it would be “hasty to conclude the current situation has reached an epidemic.” She also said her agency would need to observe hospitalized patients until the end of next week to make such a judgment.

The recent surge in Covid-19 cases could be attributed to the KP.3 subvariant, a strain of an Omicron variant.

In July, 39.8 percent of confirmed cases were found to be due to the KP.3 subvariant. In June, it accounted for 12.1 percent of all circulating variants.

“Although the KP.3 variant has immune escape ability, its fatality rate seems to be low,” said Eom Joong-sik, a professor specializing in infectious disease at Gachon University Gil Medical Center.

According to a report from the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday, respiratory infectious diseases become more transmissible in indoor environments in the summertime as windows are closed due to hot air from outside and air conditioning. Korea saw spikes in the Covid-19 cases in the summers of 2022 and 2023.

Yang said that “nearly 65 percent of new coronavirus confirmed cases are patients older than 65,” noting that the agency is “developing a vaccination that can prevent infections of KP.3 variant and other subvariants of the JN.1 variant.”

The KDCA plans to vaccinate older adults over 65 and those with immune system disorders with a newly developed compound that is effective against the KP.3 variant.

BY MOON SANG-HYEOK, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]