Covid infections on the wane, but critical numbers rise

A nurse at the Seongnam Citizens Medical Center monitors Covid-19 patients inside the hospital's negative pressure ward on Monday. [YONHAP]

Critically ill numbers continued to climb even as new Covid infections fell below 50,000, health authorities said Monday.

Korea reported 44,689 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, including 436 from overseas, bringing the country’s cumulative total number of infections to 19,820,739, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The number of patients in critical condition rose to 287, up from 284 on Saturday.

The last time the number of critically ill patients was higher was on May 18, with 313.

The number of new Covid-19 infections on Monday was still higher than the 35,883 new cases logged the previous Monday.

The KDCA reported 21 additional Covid-19 related deaths, bringing the country’s death toll to 25,068.

Last week, the KDCA revised downward its prediction for the daily peak of the ongoing wave to 200,000, compared to its forecast of 300,000 several weeks ago.

While Monday’s figure was drastically lower than the 73,589 new cases confirmed Sunday, continuing a declining trend in daily infections since Wednesday, it's too early to tell if that signifies the cresting of the sixth wave of infections. It may be the result of fewer people getting tested.

“I expect numbers to rise steeply in mid-to-late August, when the summer holidays end and more people get tested again,” said Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious diseases at Korea University. He added that the number of deaths and people in critical condition could also increase.

Over 80 percent of patients in critical condition and 90 percent of deaths reported on Sunday were in the high-risk category of Covid-19 patients over the age of 60.

Beginning Monday, health authorities will no longer conduct daily phone checks of patients in this age group, but
experts have cautioned that the ending of intensive monitoring of elderly people could have dangerous consequences.

“The lives of elderly people living alone may be imperiled because they do not have a family who can check up on them,” said Seo Jung-sik, a professor of infectious diseases at Gachon University’s Gil Hospital.

Meanwhile, the KDCA released data on Sunday showing that the Omicron strain has reinfected over 76,346 people in Korea since it was first detected in the country in January.

Omicron reinfections, tallied at 12,947, represented 16.8 percent of all recorded Covid-19 reinfections as of July 10.

Reinfections with an Omicron subvariant after an initial Delta infection numbered 42,616, while reinfections with Omicron after a pre-Delta Covid-19 infection have been logged at 20,983.

The KDCA’s chief of contact tracing, Park Young-jun, cited the data as he urged people to get fourth booster shotS.

“Vaccinations are the only way to mitigate the chances of reinfection,” Park said.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]