 |
| Park Hyang from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters speaks during a briefing on relaxing social distancing measures against the coronavirus at the Government Complex Sejong, Wednesday. Courtesy of Ministry of Health and Welfare |
Experts warn against early return to normalcy by scrapping distancing rules
By Lee Hae-rin
The government is mapping out a gradual "return to normalcy" scheme by treating COVID-19 as endemic, as daily infection cases are showing clear signs of decline.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Wednesday, the country will lift the social distancing and quarantine measures in phases, rather than declaring an end to the pandemic and removing all regulations at once.
"Discussions (on the new regulations) are still in progress," Park Hyang, a senior health official, said during a briefing. She said that in light of Omicron's relatively low fatality rate, health authorities are considering lowering the infectious disease level of COVID-19, which has been at "Level 1," the highest in the four-tier system.
Korea reported 224,820 new COVID-19 cases for Wednesday, bringing up the total number of cases to 14,778,405, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The weekly average went down to 254,000 from the previous week's 300,000, showing a general decline in the spread of the disease.
Also, the numbers of deaths and critical cases are also declining, as 348 deaths and 1,116 critically ill cases were reported for Wednesday.
The government said it will consider lifting most of the quarantine measures, including wearing masks, once the current social distancing regulations to limit the number of people for private gatherings to 10 by midnight end on April 17.
However, the health authority explained that it will not remove the ongoing measures to protect against COVID-19 infection all at once.
Sohn Young-rae of the health ministry said that social distancing measures have been losing their effectiveness as the Omicron variant is highly transmissible but less lethal.
"Social distancing measures may be reinforced if a new coronavirus variant surges in the future, but for now, the government believes easing social distancing measures is necessary," Sohn said, underlining that lifting regulations does not necessarily mean that the coronavirus has become endemic.
On the chances of removing the regulation on wearing masks outdoors, Sohn said it has a low priority among the measures to be lifted at the moment.
However, some health experts find it premature to ease the quarantine measures in anticipation of the pandemic's end.
"Although the infection rate has been on the decline recently, the number is likely to be underestimated. People are growing insensitive to the coronavirus and choose not to get tested anymore even if they feel sick, because the tests are no longer offered for free at testing centers," Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious medicine at Korea University Guro Hospital, told The Korea Times, Thursday.
"There is still a possibility of a new variant emerging, while there is also not enough information on Omicron's reinfection cases in the country. It is too early to think we're nearing the end of the pandemic and lift the regulations," Kim said.
