Still, South Korea has given up trying to stop the spread of the virus. Health officials recently called such a large-scale outbreak necessary. It was a test of faith for a health system – and a population – ahead of a new pandemic goal: downgrading COVID-19 from the most dangerous category of infectious disease.
Countries in the West, such as the US, UK, Denmark and Iceland, are dropping mask mandates and indicating that the next phase is treating the virus as endemic. South Korea leads among countries in Asia that have kept the majority of the pandemic down but are now sizing the virus apart amid record cases, as high vaccination rates have increased hospitalizations and deaths. kept low.
Singapore, which once imposed some of the region’s strictest COVID-19 measures, has been steadily rolling back restrictions despite the historic number of cases. With 92% of its total population vaccinated, it has stopped requiring people to wear masks outside and eliminated quarantine for vaccinated travellers.
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a speech last week, “Our fight against COVID-19 has reached a turning point. We will take a decisive step towards living with COVID-19.”
Australia, which kept its borders closed for most of the pandemic, has reopened and will stop requiring travelers to take PCR tests before entering. Japan lifted the rest of its COVID-19 restrictions last week as an omicron wave dwindled there. Global health experts say South Korea will be the first country to downgrade the threat level for the virus, effectively removing emergency powers.
“South Korea could become the first country to have endemic infections,” said Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “They have one of the highest vaccination rates among adults, high confidence in the public health system and the right tools to emerge from the pandemic.”
South Korea’s COVID-19 cases in March were three times higher per capita based on a seven-day rolling average, compared to the peaks of the pandemic for the US and UK, in a recent survey, one in three South Koreans reported Said he was likely to have been infected with the virus by the highest percentage of people who said so since such voting began in January 2020.
“South Korean adults who have not yet contracted COVID have no social life,” Ma Sang-hyuk, vice president of the Korean Vaccine Society, recently posted on Facebook. The post was later deleted and Dr. Ma didn’t do that. Respond to a request for comment.
Omicron’s effect was blunted in South Korea as one of the world’s highest vaccination rates, with 96% of adults receiving two doses. At just 0.13%, the country has one of the lowest death rates from the virus globally—the US and UK account for a 10th of South Korea’s total mortality rate at 0.18% for the Omicron version, but one for those under 60. According to senior national health official Son Young-rae, the number is close to zero. Seasonal flu has a mortality rate of between 0.05% and 0.1%.
Health officials have been given more confidence because antiviral pills that could help prevent deaths in the elderly are now widely available. The country’s first indigenous vaccines – which give it more direct control over supplies – are set to be available later this year.
“It is necessary to experience a big wave in the process of infection in endemics,” Mr Son said last month.
After the current outbreak subsides, a downgrading of the COVID-19 risk may occur over the next several months. The move has been supported by most of South Korea’s political and health establishment, including the country’s outgoing prime minister.
Still, some local health experts have said it is premature to downplay the threat level. Former government advisers have said it is too early for South Korea to lower its guard, with the country still in the grip of its biggest outbreak. The country has never before downgraded viruses that were initially classified to level 1, the highest risk level, which include Middle East respiratory syndrome, Ebola and H1N1 flu.
Jerome Kim, director of the International Vaccine Institute, a Seoul-based nonprofit, said Covid-19 cases will drop from today’s peak in several weeks, but that doesn’t mean the pandemic is over.
“Downgrading will create a sense of complacency,” Mr Kim said.
South Korea classifies the risk posed by infectious diseases on a scale of 1, the highest being 4. The country placed COVID-19 at the highest alert level in February 2020, the first time it had made that designation since the H1N1 flu. outbreak in 2009
Under the highest alert, it is necessary to immediately report the infection to the government. South Korean authorities used powers granted to them under the Level 1 classification of COVID-19 to restrict the operation of public transport, temporarily close schools and ban social gatherings.
Other countries have similar regulations for infectious diseases that are classified as the most dangerous. For example, Japan considers COVID-19 to be in the same category as diseases such as tuberculosis and SARS. Its law requires the isolation of patients with those diseases and the health authorities to record each case and trace contacts. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in February remained cautious about changing the status of COVID-19, saying it was not realistic as there were still concerns about possible new waves.
For a time, South Korea was one of the strictest countries in terms of its efforts to contain the virus. Officials imposed curfews, mask mandates and limits on social gatherings. The government used digital surveillance, including GPS data from phones, to track close contacts. Last year, people without vaccinations were banned from entering department stores.
Korean health officials first began talking about a switch to living as normal after higher vaccination levels were achieved last fall. However, this stopped with the arrival of Omicron and a surge in cases over the winter. Officials tightened social distancing rules, limited gatherings to four, and began imposing a 9 p.m. curfew in businesses and other public places.
But it eventually became clear that South Korea could not control its Omicron-driven outbreak. In early 2022, it had reported just over half a million of the total COVID-19 cases during the entire pandemic. Three months later, South Korea now has about 13 million.
Despite the high number of cases, adequate beds were available in the hospital. About 68% of intensive care units were filled as of Tuesday. In the past two months, South Korea transitioned from hospitalizing every COVID-19 patient to sending only elderly patients or those with pre-existing conditions. Younger asymptomatic patients are isolated at home for seven days instead of 14.
South Korea paid special attention to distributing booster shots to the elderly. About 63% of the population has received a third dose, compared to 29% in US countries such as South Korea and New Zealand, but hospitalizations and mortality are controlled due to high vaccination rates. Due to low vaccination rates, places like Hong Kong have struggled with high mortality rates even among elderly populations.
“With high vaccination rates, it is appropriate for health officials to downplay the threat level because focusing on one infection is not the right way to work on public health,” said Dr. Gandhi.
—Niharika Mandhana in Singapore and Miho Inada in Tokyo contributed to this article.
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