Influenza Epidemic Alert Lifted... 12 Weeks Earlier Than Last Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced that it will lift the influenza (flu) epidemic advisory issued on November 15 last year, starting from the 27th.

The KDCA explained that the influenza sentinel surveillance results showed that the number of suspected flu patients remained below the epidemic threshold for three consecutive weeks until the 21st, leading to the lifting of the epidemic advisory.

An epidemic advisory is issued when the number of suspected flu patients exceeds the threshold set by the KDCA and is lifted when the number falls below the threshold for more than three weeks. The epidemic threshold for the 2019?2020 season was 5.9 suspected patients per 1,000 outpatients.

The period with the highest number of suspected patients was the 52nd week of last year (December 22?28), with 49.8 patients. This was fewer than the peak of the previous season, the 52nd week of 2018 (December 23?29), which had 73.3 patients, and most patients were infected with influenza A (over 96%).

While the timing of the epidemic advisory issuance was the same as in the 2018?2019 season, the end date was 12 weeks earlier, resulting in a shorter epidemic period.

Jung Eun-kyung, head of the KDCA, stated, "Although the influenza epidemic has ended, we must continue to respond to the ongoing community spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19)." She added, "We urge everyone to follow personal hygiene rules regularly to prevent various infectious diseases."

She continued, "There is a possibility of an increase in influenza patients due to group activities of students after the start of elementary, middle, and high school semesters," and added, "We will closely monitor the trend of influenza cases after the school opening."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.