Omicron surge sparks distrust in vaccine

A monitor at the disaster control center in Songpa District Office in Seoul shows an all-time high of 13,012 new daily COVID-19 infections for Tuesday. Yonhap

Daily new COVID-19 cases exceed 13,000

By Lee Hyo-jin

Korea saw the number of daily coronavirus infections surpass 10,000 for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, driven up by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Tuesday's tally stood at 13,012, including 12,743 local transmissions, breaking the all-time record of 8,571 daily infections set the previous day.

Of the total cases, 8,154 were reported from Seoul and its surrounding areas, with 3,110 cases in Seoul, 4,184 in Gyeonggi Province and another 860 in the western port city of Incheon.

The highly contagious Omicron variant took over as the dominant coronavirus strain last week, less than two months after it was first identified in the country on Dec.1.

"In just a few days since Omicron became the dominant strain, the number of daily infections has exceeded 13,000," Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said during a COVID-19 response meeting on Wednesday morning.

Cautioning against both excessive anxiety as well as complacency, Kim said, "From now on, the government's response measures will prioritize decreasing critical cases and deaths."

Later in the day, President Moon Jae-in presided over a closed-door meeting with health authorities to review the government's Omicron response measures.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Kim as well as the minister of interior safety, health minister and KDCA chief joining virtually due to virus precautions, according to Park Soo-hyun, the senior presidential secretary for public communication.

A person receives a rapid antigen COVID-19 test at a testing station in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. Yonhap

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The health ministry, for its part, announced that starting from Jan. 29, a new response system focusing on curtailing the new variant, currently in place in four Omicron-hit local jurisdictions ― Pyeongtaek, Anseong in Gyeonggi Province, Gwangju and the entire South Jeolla Province ― will be expanded nationwide.

The new measures will focus on early virus detection and treatment of vulnerable groups, including people over 60 years of age and those with chronic illnesses.

Under the new testing protocol, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which were previously freely available to anyone, will be offered only to high-risk groups. Others can undergo PCR tests only when they test positive through rapid antigen tests or self-test kits.

The ministry forecast daily caseloads to reach 30,000 by early February, while some medical experts shared more pessimistic views.

"At this pace, if only the current social distancing measures remain in place, the number of daily cases could reach 200,000 in March. The Omicron-led wave is likely to continue for about three months," Jacob Lee, a professor of infectious diseases at Hallym University Gangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, said during an interview with local radio.

Vaccine distrust mounts

In addition to the battle against the surging Omicron variant, public health authorities are struggling to alleviate growing public distrust over the vaccines. Despite Korea's high vaccine coverage, the country has been seeing record-breaking infections, prompting people to question the vaccines' efficacy.

According to KDCA data, 85.5 percent of the country's 50 million population have been fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, while 50.3 percent have received a booster shot.

Despite these figures, 71 percent of virus cases reported in the second week of January were breakthrough infections among those who have been fully vaccinated.

But public health authorities said that the vaccines are highly effective, as they greatly reduce the risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death.

"Although breakthrough infections are occurring, we are seeing a steady decline in critical cases and deaths. Over the past eight weeks, 55 percent of the critical cases and deaths were among the unvaccinated group," said health ministry spokesperson Son Young-rae.

Given that only seven percent of people aged 12 and over are unimmunized, the 55-percent portion of unvaccinated people here who have been infected is rather high, he explained.

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