After China, it is South Korea’s turn to face contamination records linked to the coronavirus and its variant Omicron. On Wednesday more than 600,000 new cases were registered by the authorities. On the other hand, the number of serious cases and deaths remains low in this country of some 52 million inhabitants where the majority of adults are fully vaccinated and have received a third dose, according to official figures.
According to the WHO, South Korea now tops the global rankings for the number of new cases recorded in the past seven days, with 2,417,174 people testing positive, followed by Vietnam with 1,776,045 cases. Health authorities believe that South Korea is about to reach the peak of the wave of Omicron infections, according to Lee Sang-won, a senior official with the Korea Agency for Disease Control and Prevention ( KDCA). Once this has passed, the country will be able to return to normal life, according to the authorities.
The lifting of restrictions continues despite everything
In February, Seoul abandoned its policy of “tracing, testing and treating positive people” as a dramatic rise in Omicron cases threatened to overwhelm its medical system.
Patients with mild or moderate symptoms are now asked to stay home for treatment. The country has continued to relax its social distancing rules, under pressure from small business owners who say restrictions imposed over the past two years to deal with Covid have driven their businesses to the brink of bankruptcy.