President Moon warns against panic over surge of Omicron variant

President Moon Jae-in speaks during a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae

Korea introduces new COVID-19 control scheme focused on self-monitoring

By Nam Hyun-woo

President Moon Jae-in urged Koreans to refrain from "excessive fear" over the rapid spread of the Omicron variant and unveiled a new control scheme focused on self-monitoring and self-treatment by infected individuals to free up medical workers to treat severely ill patients.

"After the Omicron variant became the dominant strain in Korea, the number of daily confirmed cases has been setting new highs every day, and it is a grim reality as we are uncertain about how high the number will go and when it will peak," Moon said while presiding over a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure meeting on Monday.

"We need to be alert, but we don't need to have excessive fear," he said. "Even though the number of confirmed cases increases, if we control severely ill patients, the fatality rate and medical response capability, we can successfully overcome this critical moment."

Moon's remarks came as the number of daily confirmed cases reached nearly 40,000 amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

Korea reported 35,286 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, pushing up the total caseload to 1.04 million. The COVID-19 situation has been spinning out of control, with the number of daily infected cases reaching a record high of 38,691 on Saturday, up from 18,341 on Monday and 27,443 on Thursday. The rate of positive COVID-19 test results increased from 9.4 percent on Monday to 26 percent on Sunday.

Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said Monday this trajectory is expected to continue for the time being and the daily tally may rise further to somewhere between 130,000 and 170,000 at the end of this month.

A citizen takes a COVID-19 test at a testing site near Seoul Station, Monday. Yonhap

Despite the uptrend, Moon released a comforting message because the Omicron variant is highly contagious but has a lower risk of causing severe symptoms.

"Despite the spread, the country managed to contain the number of severely ill patients at the 200 level, and the operating rate of hospital beds for those patients remains below 20 percent," Moon said. "Since the Omicron variant is highly contagious but has a lower risk of causing severe symptoms, the country should focus on caring for high-risk groups and preventing the risk of death."

The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients stood at 270, down by two from a day earlier, while the death toll from COVID-19 came to 6,886, up by 13 from Sunday.

In line with Moon's comments, the government introduced a new virus control scheme aimed at strengthening self-monitoring by patients to allow medical workers to focus on critically ill patients.

Under the new scheme, the government will categorize patients treating themselves at home into two categories _ high-risk and general groups. The high-risk group are those aged over 60 or those who are over 50 and have existing medical conditions.

For the high-risk group, medical institutions will continue monitoring the conditions of patients twice a day, but infected people in the general group will monitor their own condition and can receive remote treatments from hospitals and clinics in their neighborhoods if necessary.

Home care kits, such as oximeters, antipyretics to reduce fevers and thermometers will be provided only to the high-risk group, and the types of items will be lowered to four. Hand sanitizers and flu medicine have been excluded.

The number of medical institutions checking the high-risk group's conditions will be raised to 650 from 532.

The government believes it will be able to deal with the latest surge through those measures until the daily number of confirmed case reaches 210,000.

Also, the government will change the method of epidemiological surveys. Infected patients will access the government's website to upload their movements and individuals with whom they came into contact. Family members of infected patients will be allowed to go outside of their homes for certain purposes such as visiting clinics and grocery shopping.

"The government will maintain its principle that the state will take the responsibility of all COVID-19 patients," the government said in a statement. "The new scheme is aimed at allocating limited resources efficiently to minimize the number of critically ill patients and spare the capacity of the quarantine and medial system. At the same time, it seeks to introduce an eased response system for general patients to alleviate public inconveniences."

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