ED Return to normal life
Korea seeks to downgrade COVID-19 to endemic
Korea lifted most COVID-19 restrictions Monday, starting a journey back to normalcy. The lifting came two years and one month after the country adopted such limits to battle the coronavirus. It is welcome news for the people who have struggled to ride out the unprecedented public health crisis.
Most notable is that all social distancing rules, except the mask mandate, were scrapped. Curfews on restaurants, cafes, bars and other entertainment establishments were lifted completely. And people are now allowed to gather without any restrictions such as the 10-person cap on private gatherings.
Furthermore, health authorities plan to downgrade the infectious disease level of COVID-19 by one notch to the second-highest level under a four-tier system next Monday. After undergoing a four-week trial period, the seven-day mandatory quarantine for coronavirus patients will be lifted. Patients will no longer be subject to at-home treatment. Thus, they will receive treatments at local clinics like an endemic disease.
All of these measures mean that the country is on track to treat COVID-19 as an endemic, two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease a global pandemic. This raises hopes that Korea will be the first country in the world to downgrade the novel coronavirus to an endemic, although the WHO has no immediate plan to do so.
The lifting of the restrictions is based on the government's conclusion that the spread of the Omicron variant has already passed its peak and is now on a steady decline. In fact, the daily new cases hit their highest level of 621,178 on March 17. And the number plunged to a 10-week low of 47,743 Monday, after reporting 93,001 Sunday and 107,916 Saturday.
Most of all, the Moon Jae-in administration should do its best to speed up the transition of COVID-19 to an endemic and usher in a post-pandemic world. The outgoing government also needs to cooperate with the incoming Yoon Suk-yeol administration in overcoming the drawn-out health crisis which has disrupted normal lives and battered the economy hard.
However, it is still premature to declare an end to the pandemic. A new variant, or another pandemic may emerge down the road. Thus, the authorities should overhaul the nation's response system to better cope with a possible resurgence of the virus. All members of our society are also required to keep personal hygiene rules to fend off the virus.
A lesson we have learned from COVID-19 is that prevention is better than a cure. We have also learned that complacency is the biggest enemy in our fight against the pandemic. So the government should strive to improve the healthcare system and create a better pandemic response system. It is also urgent to have a better compensation system for those vulnerable to pandemic restrictions. It is equally important to speed up an economic recovery in the face of global supply disruptions and soaring inflation in order to improve the people's livelihood.