Korea changes public health measures to deal with Omicron

A group of Singaporean tourists wait at Incheon International Airport on Monday after the two countries resumed a travel bubble pact that allows quarantine-free travel. [YONHAP]

Korea is phasing into an Omicron-tailored virus response this week, including changes to its polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and its quarantine periods as the variant becomes dominant in the country.

“The government will concentrate the limited PCR testing capability on early diagnosis and treatment of high-risk groups in their 60s or older to prevent symptoms deteriorating into severe illness,” Jeong Eun-kyeong, commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), said in a regular press briefing held on Monday.

PCR tests at district public health center screening clinics, which have been offered for free to anyone, will be prioritized for the people 60 or older, people who are epidemiologically linked to virus patients, those with a doctor’s note citing the need for a Covid-19 test, those who are subject to preemptive testing regularly, and anyone who tested positive on a self-testing kit or rapid antigen test.

People who don't fall into those categories will be asked to use self-testing kits provided at the testing center, while people with symptoms will be advised to visit a designated medical facility such as respiratory clinics to receive treatment.

The new system will first be tried starting this Wednesday in four regions that have seen a rapid rise of Omicron cases: Gwangju, South Jeolla, Pyeongtaek and Anseong.

The expansion of the system nationwide will be done “around the end of January or early February,” said Park Young-joon, head of the epidemiological investigation team at the Central Disease Control Headquarters.

In addition, changes to the management of Covid-19 patients and close contacts will be applied across the country from Wednesday.

“The isolation period for confirmed patients will be seven days for fully-vaccinated people and 10 days for the unvaccinated and others,” announced Jeong.

Fully vaccinated people refer to those who had their third dose 14 days earlier or their second dose within 90 days.

“Close contacts of patients who have been fully vaccinated will be put under passive monitoring [checking their health condition on their own and reporting to the local health center]," Jeong added, "while others such as the unvaccinated will be under quarantine for seven days [...] and they will receive a PCR test on the sixth to seventh day regardless of vaccination status.”

Currently, people who have come into close contact with an Omicron patient must undergo 10 days of quarantine regardless of their vaccination status. Under the new guideline starting Wednesday, regardless of the contracted variant of the patient, fully vaccinated people will be exempted from quarantine and be subject to passive monitoring.

Meanwhile, travelers from overseas will still be subject to 10-day isolation period when entering Korea.

"Currently, the Covid-19 positivity rate for overseas entrants exceeds five percent, showing a very high infection rate," Park said. "We will adjust the quarantine system for overseas arrivals around early February [...] applying similar standards to that of domestic ones."

The new measures follow the rise of Omicron.

“With Omicron infections soaring mainly in the Gyeonggi and Honam [North and South Jeolla provinces and Gwangju] regions, Omicron cases were identified in around 50 percent of local cases,” Interior Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said in a Covid-19 response meeting on Monday.

From Jan. 17 to 23, Omicron accounted for 50.3 percent of all new infections nationwide, data from the Interior Ministry showed, making it the dominant strain of the coronavirus. The week before, Omicron was estimated at 26.7 percent of all domestic infections.

It's been less than two months since Korea detected its first case of Omicron, which was on Dec. 1.

Fueled by the spread of Omicron, Korea’s Covid-19 cases topped 7,000 for three days in a row.

The country reported 7,513 new Covid-19 cases, raising the total caseload to 741,413, according to the KDCA.

This nearly doubled from the previous Monday's 3,857 cases, and marked the highest figure reported on a Monday, although Mondays’ tally is usually lower due to fewer tests conducted over the weekend.

Average daily infections in the past week stood at 5,962, also increasing 50 percent compared to the week before.

With the extended Lunar New Year holidays — from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 — just around the corner, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum urged the public to refrain from visiting hometowns and any other travel during the holidays.

“If many people visit their hometowns and increase private gatherings during the holiday it will be no different from pouring fuel on a burning fire,” Kim said, citing a 38-percent jump in new Covid-19 cases following the Chuseok harvest holiday last fall.

For those who must visit their hometowns, Kim said they should get booster shots in advance. Kim also called for people to wear a face mask stronger than KF80, or greater than 80 percent filtration capability.

Meanwhile, President Moon Jae-in on Monday called for a swift transition to the new virus response measures to cope with Omicron.

“As the number of confirmed cases could surge in a short period of time, the speed [of transitioning into a new response system] is more important than anything else,” Moon said, according to Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for public communication.

Moon made the statement from self-quarantine since his return from the Middle East on Saturday.

Meanwhile, broader vaccine pass exemptions took effect from Monday.

Korea added another two groups who don't need to present a vaccine pass — either a vaccination certificate or a negative PCR test result — to enter facilities requiring such documents: people who have been hospitalized within six weeks of vaccination or those who applied for national compensation for vaccine side effects but were rejected due to no proof of causality.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]