Has Omicron wave crested in Korea?

People line up for COVID-19 testing at a screening center near Seoul Station, Monday. Yonhap

Daily new infections have slowed since last Wednesday

By Lee Hyo-jin

The peak of the Omicron wave in Korea may have passed, according to the health ministry, with daily new infections showing signs of slowing down. But concerns linger over another upsurge as the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron has been increasing its presence here amid eased social distancing rules.

The country added 209,169 new infections for Sunday, a significant drop from 334,708 cases the previous day, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The figure has been declining steadily after hitting an all-time high of 621,281 last Wednesday.

The agency reported the second-largest number of COVID-19-related fatalities at 329, with 1,130 patients in critical condition.

The government previously said the Omicron wave would reach its peak between March 12 and 22, after which the country may see a downward trend in infections.

“Daily infection cases have been falling for four straight days after hitting an all-time high last week,” Interior and Safety Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said during a COVID-19 response meeting on Monday.

He also announced the government's plan to introduce the oral antiviral treatment Molnupiravir, developed by U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Merck. Also known by the brand name Lagevrio, enough doses for 100,000 people will be shipped by the end of this week.

The country still has a sufficient supply of Pfizer's antiviral treatment Paxlovid ― enough for some 80,000 patients ― with more to come in April. The medicine are being distributed at a rapid pace, with hundreds of thousands of new recipients added each day.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare viewed that the country may have weathered the worst of Omicron last week.

“Although we would have to look further at the virus situation for this week, we view the current situation positively. The average number of daily infections last week stood at 400,000, slightly above our prediction of infections peaking at 370,000,” ministry spokesman Son Young-rae told reporters during a briefing, Monday.

“If the current trend continues throughout this week, we could say that last week was the peak.”

But Son stressed that the government will monitor daily new cases reported on Wednesday and Thursday, as Monday's caseload may not properly reflect the virus situation due to fewer tests being conducted on the weekend.

The health authorities cautiously projected the downward trend to continue, given that in other countries, the Omicron wave began to recede after about 20 percent of the population had been exposed to the virus.

As of Monday, the country's total caseload neared 10 million at 9,582,815, accounting for about 18.5 percent of the population, with the percentage expected to surpass 20 percent by the end of this week.

But despite the downslope, concerns linger over a possible upsurge in infections, due to the increasing presence of the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron (BA.1), additional relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions which took effect on Monday and waning immunity of vaccinations.

Sub-variant BA.2, also known as “Stealth Omicron,” has been found to be about 30 percent more transmissible than BA.1, causing daily infections to double in some European countries including the United Kingdom.

In Korea, BA.2 accounted for over 41.4 percent of new infections last week, up from 26.3 percent the previous week.

In addition, under relaxed social distancing regulations starting from Monday, up to eight people are allowed to hold private gatherings, up from the previous six. Multiuse facilities such as cafes and eateries may receive sit-in customers until 11 p.m.

Inbound travelers who have been fully vaccinated no longer have to self-isolate upon arrival, except for those flying from high-risk countries including Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Myanmar.