[The Public = Daniel Park] The New York Times (NYT), an American media outlet, recently focused on the epidemic situation in Korea, where the daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeded 600,000. The New York Times evaluated that "Korea is a country that once implemented the most stringent quarantine policy," but that it is "responding with shrug" to the situation where it currently records the world's highest number of daily confirmed cases.
The New York Times reported on the 17th (local time) in an article titled "Korea's soaring number of COVID-19 cases met with collective indifference."
The media explained the situation, saying, "In a country with a population of 50 million, more than 620,000 confirmed cases a day." "The epidemic triggered by the omicron mutation far outweighs all the (corona 19) epidemics that Korea has experienced so far."
The New York Times reported that South Korea is experiencing an unprecedented increase in the number of confirmed cases, but the government is responding by easing quarantine guidelines and border policies. It is pointed out that it is quite different from the strict quarantine policy, such as mandatory masks and testing, tracking, and isolation at one time.
Regarding this, the New York Times said, "The Korean government promoted its quarantine policy by calling it the 'K-Quarantine Model'.
The cause of this policy change seems to be the accumulated fatigue caused by the high-intensity quarantine policy implemented so far. Jang Young-wook, a researcher for foreign economic policy, told the New York Times, "Citizens no longer have patience." "The risk of infectious diseases has been somewhat exaggerated to get citizens' cooperation, but cooperation is also a kind of resource. And that resource is exhausted.” he analyzed.
In fact, on the 18th, the government made a decision to relax some additional quarantine guidelines. Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-cheol said at a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Headquarters in the morning of the same day, "Considering the Omicron pandemic, the burden of the medical response system, and the uncertainty of predicting the peak of the epidemic, there are great concerns about easing the distance significantly. The ban on any gathering of eight or more people will be imposed.”
This measure will be applied for two weeks from the 21st to the 3rd of next month. Multi-use facilities such as restaurants and cafes will remain open until 11 pm as before, but the number of private gatherings will be reduced to eight.
The number of daily confirmed cases in recent days has greatly exceeded the government's previous expectations. According to the quarantine authorities, as of 00:00 on the 17th, the number of new cases recorded 621,328, the highest level ever. On the 18th, the next day, the number was 407,017, which decreased significantly, but it still exceeded 400,000.
Initially, the government predicted that the weekly average daily number of confirmed cases would peak at 310,000 to 370,000 on or around the 23rd, and then turn to a downward trend. However, the number of confirmed cases in the past week (12th to 18th) has averaged around 405,000 per day, which has already deviated from the government's forecast.
Some in the medical community have urged the government to stop easing further quarantine measures, saying that the government may have "underestimated" the severity of the spread of COVID-19.
The Korean Medical Association's Corona 19 Countermeasures Committee issued a press release on the 18th and said, "Transfer to medical institutions for proper treatment of corona patients has been virtually stopped.” He continued, "The government is currently easing quarantine measures just because the vaccination rate is high and Omicron's fatality rate is low, but the death toll is rapidly increasing to the extent that the number of corona patients outpaces the decrease in the fatality rate.” he said.
"The number of deaths at the moment is also the highest in the world compared to the population, but this does not include those who died after a short quarantine period was lifted. The number of deaths may be rather underestimated." he warned.
[Image by Yonhap News Agency]
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