SEOUL– South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases fell below 140,000 on Monday, but virus-related deaths soared to a record high, as the government decided to suspend the enforcement of the vaccine pass system as part of efforts to free up resources and focus more on treating seriously ill patients.
The country reported 139,626 new coronavirus infections, including 139,466 local cases, raising the total caseload to 3,134,456, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Monday’s daily caseload marked a drop from the previous day’s 163,565. The tally surpassed the 100,000 mark for the first time in mid-February and soared to an all-time high of 171,442 on Wednesday before staying around the 160,000 level for the following days.
The total COVID-19 caseload surpassed 3 million on Monday, just about a week after reaching the 2 million mark. The figure surpassed the 1 million mark earlier this month.
The country reported 114 more COVID-19 deaths, up sharply from the previous day’s 49. It is the highest figure since the country reported its first COVID-19 death in February 2020.
The accumulated death toll came to 8,058, and the fatality rate was 0.26 percent, according to the KDCA.
The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients also rose further to 715 Monday from the previous day’s 663. Compared with a week earlier, the figure grew nearly 50 percent.
The bed occupancy rate in hospitals’ intensive care units for COVID-19 patients has also been on the rise, standing at 48.2 percent as of 5 p.m. Sunday, up 3.3 percentage points from the same time a day earlier.
“Daily cases are forecast to rise to over 230,000 and critically ill patients will grow over 1,200 around March 9,” KDCA Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong told a regular briefing, citing the results of an analysis by local science institutes.
“According to forecasts, the omicron wave could reach the peak early next month or in mid-March, and the daily caseload could surge to as high as 350,000,” the chief said, vowing full preparations in accordance with the situation.
Despite the recent wave, the country has maintained its medical response capacity in a stable term, and it will continue to focus on dealing with serious cases and preventing deaths, the KDCA said.
Amid a continued shortage of manpower handling the pandemic, the government announced a decision on Monday to temporarily suspend the enforcement of the vaccine pass system starting Tuesday for the use of 11 kinds of public facilities, such as restaurants and cafes.
Currently, proof of vaccination or a negative test result is a must to enter those multiuse facilities, which has added to the burden of health workers to issue negative test certificates.
Interior Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said that the vaccine pass system, which began to be enforced in November, was designed to protect unvaccinated people when the delta variant had spread, and the circumstances have since changed.
The government also decided not to introduce the vaccine pass system for young citizens, reversing its earlier expansion plan to include 12- to 18-year-old citizens starting in April amid a high percentage of teenagers infected with the virus in recent months.
The plan, however, has drawn public complaints, and Seoul and several other local courts have ruled against it, as teenagers of this age group have a low rate of COVID-19 case severity and mortality.
“As the vaccination rate has risen, controversy and conflicts have grown surrounding the necessity of the system. Court rulings have also caused confusion among people in different regions,” health ministry official Park Hyang told a regular briefing.
“We can resume or adjust the implementation in accordance with the possible emergence of a new variant and the vaccination trend,” she added.
The number of patients receiving at-home treatment hit another high of 797,354, up 28,581 from the previous day.
Of them, some 120,000 are classified as high-risk patients and are under the government’s special monitoring, the KDCA said.
Other self-treatment patients can reach hospitals and local medical clinics when their conditions worsen, with a total of 7,420 clinics available for them across the country, it added.
In a move to better treat vulnerable groups, the government is pushing to have young COVID-19 patients get face-to-face treatment from local clinics, rather than receiving treatment at a handful of emergency rooms of large-scale hospitals.
The government also began dispatching officials of central government agencies to public health care centers from Monday under the plan to send a total of 3,000 officials for COVID-19 support work.
Around 1,000 military members will also be mobilized this week to support at-home treatment patients and other administrative roles, according to the interior ministry.
As of Monday, 31.36 million people, or 61.1 percent of the country’s 52 million population, had received booster shots. The number of fully vaccinated people came to 44.36 million, accounting for 86.4 percent, according to the KDCA.
On Monday, the country expanded its COVID-19 vaccination campaign to administer the fourth dose to patients and workers at psychiatric hospitals and related facilities, as many of them are elderly citizens and suffer preexisting medical conditions.
Earlier this month, the country began administering the fourth shot to those with weak immune systems.
Source: Yonhap News Agency