Omicron pushes S. Korea’s COVID-19 cases to nearly 50,000

South Korea‘s daily COVID-19 cases nearly reached 50,000 during the 24 hours of Tuesday, due to the quickly-spreading omicron variant, the government said Wednesday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country reported 49,567 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, raising the total to 1,131,248.

It is the first time that the country’s daily figure has surpassed 40,000, according to government data. The figure was around 11,000 more than the previous daily record high of 38,689 cases reported during the 24 hours of Saturday.

The KDCA said the county’s daily COVID-19 infections have posted a 1.7-fold increase every week over the past three weeks due to the recent omicron wave.

The KDCA anticipates that the figure could reach between 130,000 and 170,000 if the omicron variant spreads at the current speed.

The country’s health authorities added at-home care patients increased rapidly to168,020, along with the omicron wave.

To handle the increasing number of at-home care patients, the government plans to increase the country’s medical capacity. According to the KDCA, the government will secure a total of 650 medical centers that will be able to take care of 217,000 at-home care patients.

As of Wednesday, the country had the capacity to manage 183,000 at-home care patients.

The government will make daily checkup calls only to at-home care patients in high-risk groups starting on Thursday.

Low-risk patients will have to monitor their symptoms on their own and contact local medical centers if their condition gets worse.

“Through these COVID-19 response measures, the government will focus more on minimizing the number of serious cases and COVID-19 related deaths,” Second Vice Health and Welfare Minister Ryu Geun-hyuk said during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters on Wednesday.

Ryu added the omicron surge has yet to have a noticeable impact on the number of COVID-19 deaths and critically ill patients.

“Fortunately, the omicron variant’s fatality rate and the rate of severe and deadly cases continue to remain at one-third of the delta variant,” Ryu said.

According to the KDCA, the country‘s death toll from COVID-19 reached 6,943 as of midnight Tuesday, up 21 from the previous day. The fatality rate stood at 0.61 percent.

The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients was 285, up 17 from the previous day.

The KDCA said that only 18.2 percent of intensive care unit beds are occupied nationwide, which leaves enough capacity to handle more patients with severe COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the KDCA also said the Novavax vaccine will be available in South Korea starting on Wednesday. The vaccine will be administered to mainly unvaccinated people aged 18 or older, according to the KDCA.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)