hankyoreh

People wearing face masks sit at desks in a shopping mall in Seoul in December 2022. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s serious and critical COVID-19 caseload has fallen below 500 for the first time in a month. Furthermore, the positive test rate for people entering the country from China — which some had thought would have a big impact on the outbreak at the beginning of the year — has fallen to the single digits.

Korea’s public health authorities think the pandemic indicators have stabilized enough to end the indoor masking requirement and will discuss the exact timing of that in a meeting with experts on Tuesday.

On Sunday, Korea’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters reported that 32,570 more people had tested positive for COVID-19 around the country on the previous day, which was down 30.3% from a week prior (46,743 on Jan. 8).

The number of COVID-19 patients with serious or critical cases also decreased by six from the previous day (505) to 499. That was the first time in 29 days the number of serious and critical cases has fallen below 500 since Dec. 17 (468).

As of 5 pm on Saturday, the occupancy rate for hospital wards dedicated to treating critically ill patients was at 33.8%.

The question of when the indoor mask mandate can be lifted will be discussed during a Tuesday meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Infectious Disease Crisis Response, prompting speculation about whether Koreans will be allowed to take their masks off indoors during the extended holiday for the Lunar New Year.

On Dec. 23, the country’s disease control authorities agreed to review ending the indoor mask mandate if two of the following four conditions were met: stabilization of the incidence rate; reduction of the number of serious, critical and fatal cases; robust capabilities in the medical system; and immunity among the high-risk cohort. Since the number of patients has continued to fall for two weeks and the intensive care unit occupancy is below 40%, at least two of those conditions have been met.

Another encouraging factor is that the positivity rate for people entering the country from China has recently decreased amid tightened quarantine requirements for such travelers. The percentage of short-term visitors entering Korea from China who tested positive for COVID-19, which had soared above 30%, fell to 5.5% on Jan. 13 and 8.7% on Jan. 14.

“It looks like the outbreak in China will pass its peak and stabilize within a month, and that shouldn’t cause any particular problem for our domestic disease control efforts either. At this point, it’s okay to end the mask mandate and return to ordinary disease control measures,” said Jung Jae-hun, a professor of preventive medicine at Gachon University College of Medical Science.

By Cheon Ho-sung, staff reporter; Kwon Ji-dam, staff reporter

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