Gov't to secure additional COVID-19 treatments this month: presidential office

The government will secure and distribute additional COVID-19 treatments before the end of this month to fight a resurgence of infections nationwide, a presidential official said Wednesday.

South Korea has seen a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, with virus hospitalizations at 220 major medical institutions nationwide having risen sixfold in a month to come to 861 as of the first week of August, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

"We plan to secure and distribute additional treatments within the month," the official told reporters, noting the recent wave of infections is unlikely to spiral into a pandemic, given the virus' transmissibility or severity.

"Judging from COVID-19's nature of resurging during summer and winter every year, we anticipate the current wave to continue until the end of August," the official said.

The current wave is primarily led by KP.3, an Omicron subvariant that constituted 45.5 percent of cases in South Korea last month and is also driving the summer wave elsewhere around the world.

The government has expanded its response team against COVID-19 and is closely following the virus' mutations, hospitalization trends and developments overseas, the official said.