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| A monitor at the disaster control center in Songpa District Office, Seoul, shows an all-time high of 7,175 new daily COVID-19 infections for Tuesday. Yonhap |
Experts say daily infections could reach 10,000 in a few weeks
By Bahk Eun-ji
The government's COVID-19 quarantine measure of home treatment for non-critical patients is feared to have increased infections among family members as well as the number of serious cases, health experts said Wednesday.
This concern was raised as the country's daily new number of coronavirus cases soared to a record high of 7,175 for Tuesday, a sharp rise of 2,221 from the previous day, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Health experts are now saying the number of daily infections could reach 10,000 in a few weeks.
The number of critically ill patients also hit an all-time high of 840.
Along with the high numbers, the government's policy of expanding home treatment for COVID-19 patients ― a measure to counter a shortage of hospital beds ― has fueled concerns because a patient's family members have to stay at home under self-quarantine and may contract the virus.
In Seoul alone, more than 8,800 people were under home treatment as of Tuesday.
The experts warned that at-home treatment could lead to secondary infections among the patient's family members and thus further fuel the increasing trend in cases here.
"This virus spreading will continue for a while as the effectiveness of the vaccinations in the elderly decreases, and secondary infections will also increase through home treatment," said Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious medicine at Korea University Guro Hospital.
Kim said if the current trend persists, the number of daily infections could reach 10,000 in late December or early January ― some other experts warned of even 20,000 cases per day.
There are also concerns that if the health of patients under home treatment worsens and they are not transferred to hospitals immediately, their condition could deteriorate to serious, and even result in death.
Despite such concerns, however, the government plans to further expand the home treatment strategy, as well as shortening the monitoring period for such patients by medical institutions, and lowering the mandatory quarantine period for family members from the previous 10 days to seven days; all of which go against strengthening quarantine measures.
These moves follows protests from quarantined family members who claim their daily lives are greatly damaged.
The government also decided to increase its living expenses allowance to families under quarantine, if they are fully vaccinated.
Infectious disease experts judged that the moves are inappropriate to contain the spread of COVID-19.
"The government seems to be not fully aware of the current situation. This is not a good time to consider any return to the normalcy scheme at all, but a time to come up with stronger quarantine measures," said Jung Jae-hun, an assistant professor at Gachon University's preventive medicine department.
Meanwhile, the possibility has been raised that the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus can be transmitted through the air.
On Tuesday, the Central Disease Control Headquarters confirmed that a restaurant worker was infected with the Omicron variant from a customer although they only had contact for one to two minutes.
The health authorities said they were investigating whether this showed that the Omicron variant was much more transmissible than other variants and also that it could be spread through aerosol droplets.
The accumulated number of Omicron variant COVID-19 infections here rose to 38, Tuesday, up two from the previous day.
