"WHO Risk Classification Criteria: South Korea at Level 3 out of 4 (Update)"

Image source=Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The quarantine authorities have assessed that the domestic situation of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has entered level 3 out of 4 stages based on the World Health Organization (WHO)'s risk classification. This means that after a large-scale outbreak in the community, the risk of small-scale cluster infections continues.

At a regular briefing on the afternoon of the 14th, Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters for COVID-19, said, "Our country has implemented strong social distancing for over three weeks, and the number of daily cases has somewhat decreased," but added, "The quarantine authorities remain concerned about so-called 'silent transmission,' where the transmission chain is unknown."

Deputy Head Kwon explained, "WHO classifies the risk of COVID-19 transmission in each country into four levels. The lowest level is when there are no cases at all, and the next higher level involves sporadic cases such as imported cases or one or two confirmed cases."

He continued, "A higher level than that is when there are cluster outbreaks, even if small in scale, which applies to us," adding, "There are still cluster outbreaks mainly in medical institutions in the Seoul metropolitan area." The highest risk level, level 4, is when large-scale transmission occurs in the community.

Referring to the large-scale cluster infection cases in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk regions, Deputy Head Kwon emphasized, "Our country has moved down from level 4 to level 3 through strong social distancing, and the effects will continue to appear after next week. Overall, we are still working to move from level 3 to level 2."

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