2024-07-26 18:55:37
Disease Control Center, Hospital-level Specimen Surveillance Agency Analysis
COVID-19 4th week↑… 65% of people aged 65 or older
Whooping cough spreads… 93% of children and adolescents
Mycoplasma pneumoniae is at an all-time high
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 has increased 3.5 times in four weeks. With pertussis and Microplasma pneumoniae infections also spreading, an emergency has been declared for summer respiratory infections.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced on the 26th that the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 has recently increased and that pertussis and Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections are also prevalent at the same time, so they ask for compliance with respiratory infection prevention guidelines, including indoor ventilation during the summer.
Since the transition to a Level 4 COVID-19 infectious disease specimen surveillance system, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has been monitoring the status of hospitalized patients at 220 hospital-level specimen surveillance institutions with 200 or more beds nationwide.
As a result, the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 this year peaked in the first week of February and then declined, but has been on an upward trend since the fourth week of June, with the number of weekly hospitalized patients increasing 3.5-fold over the past four weeks.
The number of patients was 63 in the fourth week of June, 91 in the first week of July, 145 in the second week of July, and 225 in the third week of July. By age, patients aged 65 and older accounted for the largest number, accounting for 64.9% (7,179 people) of the 11,069 total hospitalized patients. This was followed by patients aged 50-64 with 18.5% (2,052 people) and those aged 19-49 with 10.2% (1,130 people).
As the number of hospitalized patients increases, the detection rate of the COVID-19 pathogen also shows an upward trend, with the detection rate (17.0%) as of the third week of July increasing by 10.6 percentage points (p) compared to June (6.4%).
Looking at the detection rates of the Omicron subtypes of COVID-19, the detection rate of JN.1, which was prevalent until now, decreased by 39.8%p from June to 19.5%, but KP.3 increased by 27.78%p from June to 39.8%. KP.2 showed 16.1%, an increase of 10.4%p.
KP.3 is showing a global upward trend, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is also monitoring it as a variant, but there have been no reports of increased transmissibility or severity as of yet.
In addition, pertussis, which is mainly among children and adolescents, has spread for four weeks, and a total of 13,545 patients (including suspected patients) were reported as of the third week of July. The number of pertussis patients increased rapidly from 1,604 in the fourth week of June to 3,170 in the third week of July.
By age, 58.5% (7,925 people) were aged 13-19, 34.0% (4,605 people) were aged 7-12, and children and adolescents aged 7-19 accounted for 92.5% (12,530 people) of the total.
The number of hospitalized patients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection was also the highest since the outbreak warning was issued. The number of hospitalized patients was 641 in the fourth week of June, 573 in the first week of July, 567 in the second week of July, and 738 in the third week of July.
By age, patients aged 7 to 12 accounted for 51.6% (1,299 people) of the total 2,519 hospitalized patients. The epidemic continues to be centered on children, with 27.0% (680 people) of patients aged 1 to 6 and 10.3% (259 people) of patients aged 13 to 18.
Ji Young-mi, the director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said, “The domestic and international analysis of the KP.3 variant, which is also on the rise in Korea, has confirmed that its transmissibility or severity has not increased.” She added, “The government plans to not be negligent in responding to COVID-19 through analysis of patient occurrence trends, continuous monitoring of variants, intensive promotion of compliance with respiratory infection prevention guidelines for infection-vulnerable facilities such as nursing homes, and epidemiological investigation in case of group outbreaks.”
He added, “We plan to introduce a new vaccine that can respond to the epidemic variants and begin COVID-19 vaccination for the 2024-2025 season in October.”
[세종=뉴시스]
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2024-07-26 18:55:37