South Korea’s Public Health Collapses As Record 400,741 New COVID-19 Infections And Another 2,138 Hospitalized In Last 24 Hours!
Source: South Korea COVID-19 News Mar 16, 2022 2 years, 9 months, 6 days, 22 hours, 12 minutes ago
South Korean health authorities reported a record of 400,741 New COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and 164 COVID-19 deaths compared to 362,328 COVID-19 infections and 293 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday.
The country also saw 2,138 new COVID-19 hospitalizations on Tuesday, bring to total numbers currently hospitalized in the country to about 19,400!
Another 1,248 patients are in ICUs.
The COVID-19 cases are rising in South Korea while the country continues to ease restrictions despite the Omicron-fueled wave of infections.
South Korea has seen its COVID-19 caseload spike since early this year, with the daily tallies surging from four digits to six digits in about three weeks last month.
The 400,741 new daily infections are the country's highest daily figure since the pandemic began two years ago.
Of the locally transmitted cases reported Wednesday, 81,395 cases came from Seoul and 94,806 from the surrounding Gyeonggi Province. The western port city of Incheon reported 28,453 cases. New cases from overseas came to 117, putting the total at 30,475.
The exponential spike in cases is the "last biggest challenge" facing the country, Dr Sohn Young-rae, a senior health official, told Thailand
Medical News.
The South Korean government had anticipated caseloads in this ballpark, he said, adding that they believed they were nearing the peak of the Omicron wave.
He added, "If we overcome this crisis, we will step closer to returning to normalcy.”
However, many local experts and physicians are wary of the statement as cases do not seem to be plateauing and hospitalizations are ever increasing while there are already not enough hospital beds in the country. Currently thousands are waiting for a hospital bed!
There is also a lack of healthcare workers coupled with medical supplies running out and, many are already saying that the local healthcare system has already collapsed. At many hospitals, there are only scenes of complete chaos!
Currently, South Korea leads the world in newly reported cases in the last seven days, according to WHO data, with 2,358,878 cases, followed by Vietnam with 1,795,380.
Interestingly, the vast majority of South Korea's eligible population has been vaccinated and boosted. The country has a population of about 52 million people.
As of Wednesday, 32.18 million people out of the 52 million population, or 62.7 percent, had received booster shots. Fully vaccinated people came to 44.44 million, representing 86.6 percent.
South Korea has also continued to relax its social distancing rules, under pressure from small businesses and self-employed Koreans who say years-long COVID restrictions had pushed their businesses to the brink.
South Korea now has a 11pm curfew for businesses and a six-person limit for private gatherings.
The country will lift mandatory quarantine on arrival for fully vaccinated visitors from March 21.
The South Korean government is expected to decide whether to further relax or keep the curre
nt distancing guidelines this Friday.
South Korea has already abandoned its vaunted "trace, test and treat" programme last month, as a dramatic surge in Omicron cases has put a strain on its healthcare system.
The 400,741 new daily COVID-19 infections, mostly locally transmitted, raises the total caseload to 7,629,275, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The death toll from COVID-19 is currently 11,052, with the fatality rate standing at 0.14 percent.
Interestingly, there is not much updated data on genomic sequencings and though we do know that the BA.1.1 and BA.2 variants are predominant in circulation, there seem to be not much sequencings conducted and submitted in the last 2 weeks.
For the latest on the COVID-19 situation in South Korea, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.
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