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South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum speaks at a pandemic response meeting held at the Government Complex in Sejong on Wednesday morning. (Yonhap News)

The South Korean government has announced that it plans to overhaul its disease control and healthcare response systems for COVID-19 based on the Omicron variant’s lower case fatality rate and likelihood of becoming severe.

At a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters on Wednesday, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum stated, “It’s been shown that Omicron’s case fatality rate and severe case incidence are both one-fourth that of the Delta variant, about twice that of the seasonal flu.”

“The level of risk drops sharply for those 50 and younger, and has been shown to drop below that posed by the seasonal flu for those who have received their third shots,” Kim added.

“We’ve now gotten a clear picture of what it is we are dealing with when it comes to Omicron,” Kim said at the meeting.

“An overhaul of the disease control and healthcare systems in accordance with this is already complete, and we are at the implementation stage. All there is left to do is recognize the new conditions of disease control for what they are and have both disease control authorities and the Korean public adjust their behaviors accordingly,” Kim noted.

“We cannot keep chasing Omicron with the prior system of tracking down each and every source of infection, isolating everyone who could possibly transmit the virus, and having everyone be treated at hospitals if they face the slightest risk,” he said.

Kim emphasized that Korea should focus its healthcare response on at-risk populations, thus minimizing the number of critical cases and deaths from COVID-19 in the country.

Kim listed increasing hospital beds, booster shots, and oral COVID-19 treatments as measures for achieving this.

By Shim Wu-sam, staff reporter

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