Covid cases dip ahead of restriction-free Chuseok holidays

Workers shut down a testing cite for Covid-19 in Gwangju on Monday as Typhoon Hinnamnor approaches Korea. [YONHAP]

Korea will welcome its first national holiday without social-distancing measures since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic this Chuseok.

The Chuseok harvest holidays, starting this Friday, follow a dip in the country’s daily Covid-19 infection counts in recent weeks.

Korea reported 37,262 new cases on Monday, which was the lowest number on a Monday in six weeks.

The counts on Mondays tend to dip due to the reduced number of tests over the weekend, but this Monday was also the first time in six weeks that the day’s count dipped below 40,000.

“In the case of this Chuseok, it will be possible for everyone to go home and meet family members without any restrictions on the size of private gatherings,” said Son Young-rae, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry, in a press conference in Seoul on Friday.

The country also dropped its pre-departure Covid-19 test requirement from Sept. 3, meaning incoming travelers no longer had to submit a negative Covid-19 test result when entering Korea. A rule requiring arriving passengers to undergo a PCR test within a day of arrival remains in place.

Korea had its largest outbreak since the onset of the pandemic after the last national holiday season, the Seollal new year holiday, in early February.

Even with social distancing guidelines in place limiting personal gatherings to a maximum of six people, daily infection counts doubled from some 18,000 on Feb. 1 to over 36,000 by Feb. 8.

Driven by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 at the time, daily counts surged to reach an all-time record high of 621,328 on March 17.

During the Chuseok holidays, free Covid-19 testing will be available at nine highway rest stops across the country, including the Anseong, Icheon, Hwaseong and Yongin rest stops in Gyeonggi, the Boseong Green Tea and Seomjin River rest stops in South Jeolla and the Tongdosa Temple rest stop in South Gyeongsang.

Test sites will also be set up at Seoul Station in central Seoul, Express Bus Terminal in southern Seoul and Busan Station, though they will only be free for those aged 60 or above, those who bring in a positive result on a self-test kit, or those who live with person who has tested positive.

There were 562 Covid-19 patients in critical condition as of Monday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

There were 56 deaths from Sunday to Monday, bringing the total death toll to 27,149 with a 0.12 percent death rate.

As part of an ongoing attempt by health authorities to get more people vaccinated or boosted, American biotechnology company Novavax got the green light to administer its Covid vaccine Nuvaxovid to teens aged between 12 and 17 starting Monday.

This gave those in that age group another option for their Covid-19 vaccines, as they previously only had Pfizer available to them.

Nuvaxovid is made with a more traditional method as seen in vaccines for hepatitis B and influenza, compared to the new mRNA technology used in Pfizer and other Covid-19 vaccines such as Moderna.

Nuvaxovid was first approved for use in Korea in February, but only for those aged 18 or above.

SK Bioscience’s Covid-19 vaccine SKYCovione, also manufactured based on the more traditional method, was made available across some public health centers and select clinics starting Monday, though only for those aged 18 or above.

A total of 36 people had signed up as to receive SKYCovione shots as of Monday, according to the KDCA.

At least 87 percent of the country’s population were fully vaccinated as of Monday, while 65.4 percent had received their first booster shot, and 14.1 percent their second.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]