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Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong announces changes that will be coming to Korea’s disease control and healthcare response to Omicron during a briefing at the Government Complex Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap News)

Amid predictions that new daily confirmed COVID-19 cases could reach anywhere from 130,000 to 170,000 by the end of February, the system for managing home treatment is being reworked with a new focus on “intensive management” for high-risk patients such as those over 60 and people in their 50s with preexisting conditions.

Other patients with mild or no symptoms will be subject to remote treatment by respiratory clinics and other local hospitals and clinics, while being responsible for monitoring their own health without home treatment kits or telephone-based monitoring.

In a regular briefing of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on Monday, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said, “Based on predictions by the KDCA and various Korean and overseas experts, the number of new daily confirmed cases in South Korea is predicted to reach the level of 130,000 to 170,000 by late February amid the effects of the Omicron variant.”

“It is time for us to introduce a disease control and management system that reflects the nature of the Omicron variant,” she continued.

Jeong explained that Korea will be moving from its “3T” disease prevention strategy of testing, tracing, and treating, toward responding to large-scale infections and isolations while maintaining essential social services at the same time.

The reworked system was mostly put into effect Monday, though the relaxed home treatment monitoring system will be implemented nationwide on Thursday after a few days of preparations.

Moving forward, patients who test positive for COVID-19 who do not need urgent hospitalization and are thus slated to receive home treatment will be categorized into one of two groups: the “intensive management group” or the “regular management group.”

Those in the intensive management group will be assigned a home treatment management medical facility and be monitored twice daily via phone call. Patients who are 60 years or older, patients in their 50s with high-risk preexisting conditions that require oral prescriptions — such as diabetes, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney diseases, asthma and other chronic lung diseases, cancer, and obesity — and immunocompromised patients will qualify for the intensive management group.

On the other hand, patients in the regular management group will monitor their health according to community health center guidelines. When they require medical assistance, they can receive remote treatment from respiratory clinics or other designated medical facilities or local hospitals and clinics for respiratory treatment. They can also receive medical consultations at night from 24-hour home treatment management assistance consultation centers operated by their city, county, or district office or their city or province.

Home treatment kits will be provided primarily to patients in the intensive management group. Previously composed of seven items including black trash bags and cold medicines, the kit will now consist of only five items including fever reducers, a thermometer, a pulse oximeter, a disinfectant, and a COVID-19 self-test kit.

As family members living with patients in isolation are currently allowed to participate in essential activities such as grocery shopping, whether the government will continue to provide essential supplies to those in isolation will be determined at the local level based on local conditions. If the provision of essential supplies is discontinued, local government officials who were in charge of the matter will transition to duties related to disease prevention.

The government will provide patients in at-home treatment requiring urgent medical care hospital beds reserved for COVID-19 related emergencies. It will also install cohort isolation areas within emergency rooms for patients’ family members and others in joint isolation.

Contact tracing and isolation requirements for close contacts of COVID-19 cases will also be reworked following the spread of the Omicron variant. Patients who test positive for COVID-19 will be asked to personally fill out an online survey where they can self-record a list of their personal contacts. Survey questions will also be simplified.

Those with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis will be automatically released from isolation seven days after their positive test, without any notice from the community health center; accordingly, close contacts will also be in isolation for seven days.

Family members living with a COVID-19 patient will be notified of their joint isolation requirement by the patient, not their local community health center. Once they are released from isolation, they will only have to independently abide by everyday disease prevention guidelines for the subsequent three days without further isolation — even if they did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

If a family member in joint isolation tests positive for COVID-19, they will be required to isolate for seven additional days — other family members who do not test positive will not have to go through additional isolation. The government will discontinue the use of its self-isolation mobile application powered by GPS and assign local government officials who previously monitored the application to disease prevention and treatment duties.

South Korean Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-chul said that the government revamped its disease prevention and healthcare system “in order to prevent serious illness and death in high-risk patients by efficiently making use of limited resources.”

By Jang Hyeon-eun and Lim Jae-hee, staff reporters

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