Government: "Maintaining Social Distancing in Daily Life is Appropriate" (Update)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] On the 17th, the government judged that it is reasonable to maintain the 'social distancing in daily life' system considering the situation of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) outbreak and the capacity of the medical system.

Park Neung-hoo, the 1st Deputy Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (Minister of Health and Welfare), stated at the regular briefing held at the Government Seoul Office in the afternoon, "Although a cluster infection originating from Itaewon clubs occurred, the control of the quarantine management system is analyzed to be maintained within the response capacity of our medical system."

The average number of new confirmed cases domestically is 18.4 per day, which is twice the level of the previous two weeks (9.1). However, the scale remains below 50 cases, and the number of patients under treatment has decreased to below 1,000, indicating sufficient capacity in the treatment system.

However, the proportion of confirmed patients with unknown infection routes increased from 3.6% to 5.1% during the same period, and the management rate within the quarantine network (the proportion of newly confirmed patients who were confirmed while in self-quarantine) also declined from over 80% to below 80% due to the Itaewon club case.

Deputy Head Park said, "We plan to periodically and comprehensively assess the risk level of the COVID-19 situation and strive to build a dense quarantine network and respond swiftly to changes in the situation to ensure that indicators are stably managed."

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