Korea keeps waiting for Covid cases, deaths to peak

People wait to get tested for Covid-19 at a screening center near Seoul Station in central Seoul on Monday. [NEWS1]

The Omicron surge continues to boost the number of serious cases of Covid-19 and deaths, with serious cases approaching 1,000 as of Monday.

The country reported 210,716 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). That was down 32,910 from the previous day, but cases are expected to rise following last week’s reopening of schools and a relaxation of social distancing measures that went into effect on Saturday.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, commissioner of the KDCA, cited increased infections among children and adolescents as well as people over the age of 59 as worrying elements of the current wave.

The number of infected children under 12 jumped from 3,263 in the first week of February to 48,912 in the first week of March. The average daily infection per 100,000 population of minors under 10 reached 669.6, the highest level among all age groups.

With the rise in child infections, the KDCA said it will announce an inoculation plan for children between the ages of 5 to 11 as early as next Monday.

The proportion of people over the age of 59 among new cases, considered “high-risk” by authorities as they are more likely to deteriorate into severe illness or die from Covid-19, rose from 11.9 to 17 percent over the past two weeks.

The number of Covid-19 patients in critical condition — referring to those who require oxygen treatment (such as high-flow oxygen therapy), mechanical ventilation (being put on a respirator), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) or continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) — climbed to 955 as of Sunday midnight, 70 more than the day before. Of all critical cases, people in their 60s or older accounted for 83.5 percent, or 797 people.

Monday’s critical cases were nearly double the 480 cases on Feb. 22. Authorities believe critically ill patients will rise to between 1,700 and 2,750 in mid- to late-March.

Korea added 139 more virus fatalities on Monday.

The death toll from March 1 to 7 alone reached 1,038, or 11.4 percent of the total 9,096 fatalities in the pandemic.

“A pattern was seen in the virus waves in other countries where the number of fatalities doubled two to four weeks after the peak of new infections, and also reached a peak,” Kim Tak, a professor of infectious disease at Soonchunhyang University Hospital Bucheon, wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. He estimated Korea’s daily death toll will reach “300 to 400 from late March to April” and that “10,000 to 15,000 people will die in one or two months.”

Despite rising critical cases and deaths, health authorities said cases remain “stable and manageable.”

“The fatality rate of Omicron stayed at 0.1 percent over the past three weeks,” Son Young-rae, senior epidemiological strategist at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters told reporters on Monday. “Amid Omicron’s dominance, the weekly fatality rate is becoming similar to that of the seasonal flu.”

The fatality rate for the entire pandemic was 0.19 percent as of Monday. This rate includes all deaths occurred during the Delta wave, which had a higher fatality rate than Omicron. The fatality rate for the seasonal flu is known to be around 0.05 percent to 0.1 percent.

“The fatalities include not only the virus patients deteriorating from Omicron but also dying from other diseases,” Son added.

Omicron accounted for all local Covid-19 cases confirmed over the past week, increasing by 0.4 percent points from the previous week, the KDCA said Monday. Of imported cases, it took up 99.2 percent.

The Omicron BA.2 subvariant, nicknamed “Stealth” Omicron, accounted for 22.9 percent of domestic cases, doubling from the previous week’s 10.3 percent. Studies found that Stealth Omicron is even more transmissible than Omicron.

Amid the fast spreading Omicron strain and its subvariant, the country’s overall Covid-19 risk was evaluated as “very high” over the past week, which is the top level in its five-tier evaluation system.

It was the first time in six weeks the assessment for the country reached the highest level, after maintaining the “high” level from the third week of January through the fourth week of February.

The individual risk levels for the country as a whole, the greater capital area and other regions were all concluded to be very high, the KDCA said.

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