Home care patients top 50,000 amid surging COVID-19 cases

New confirmed COVID-19 cases have jumped by record numbers for three consecutive days. The number of new daily confirmed cases amounted to 16,096 as of 12:00 a.m. on Friday, up about 1,800 cases from Thursday. The daily average confirmed cases also has reached 10,000 level over the past week.

Experts forecast confirmed cases will hit 100,000 daily one or two months later. COVID-19 patients are feared to surge due to a soaring number of people on the move during the Lunar New Year’s Day holiday (January 29 to February 2). “The five-way holiday will be a critical variable that will determine the scale of the Omicron wave,” Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters on the day, urging the public to refrain from visiting their hometowns.

The number of COVID-19 patients who are receiving treatment at home amounted to 50,627 as of 12:00 a.m. on Friday. The number almost doubled just five days after hitting 26,127 on Sunday last week. The health authorities decided to allow respiratory diseases clinics and neighborhood clinics to provide COVID-19 testing and monitoring to people who are receiving at-home treatment beginning Thursday next week.

The health authorities said the new Novavax vaccine will be also provided from mid-February. The vaccine will be administered primarily in unvaccinated people aged 18 and older, but it can also be provided for second and third dosing to people who showed abnormal effect after receiving a previously licensed vaccine.


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