"Younger Generation Is Not Safe from COVID-19"... "Will Maintain Active Quarantine Measures"

Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Director of the Central Disease Control Headquarters [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The quarantine authorities announced that they will continue the proactive intervention policy of early detection, isolation, and treatment of confirmed COVID-19 cases to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). They also expressed the opinion that research is needed regarding the reported complications of COVID-19 among younger age groups.

On the 3rd, Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Director of the Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH), explained during an online regular briefing, "Our country is responding to COVID-19 not with so-called 'herd immunity' measures but through rapid diagnostic testing, contact tracing, isolation, and hospitalization," adding, "At present, we have no choice but to maintain the proactive intervention policy."

This was a rebuttal to recent suggestions that social distancing levels should be relaxed to form herd immunity mainly among young people, while strengthening protection for the elderly and high-risk groups.

Deputy Director Kwon cited three reasons for maintaining such proactive quarantine policies: complications reported among young people, high fatality rates among the elderly, and high infectivity. He explained, "First, there is still much we do not know about COVID-19," adding, "It has been confirmed that being young does not guarantee safety from COVID-19 infection."

Deputy Director Kwon added that according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Cardiology (JAMA Cardiology), American researchers investigated male college athletes and found that after recovering from COVID-19 infection, complications appeared in their hearts. Currently, in South Korea, there is one severe COVID-19 patient in their 20s and one in their 30s receiving oxygen therapy.

Regarding this, he said, "It is often simply mentioned that complications and fatality rates are very low in mild cases among young and middle-aged adults, but investigation and review are also necessary," adding, "There is a need to consider long-term health and aftereffects issues caused by COVID-19 in children, adolescents, and young age groups."

On the morning of the 20th of last month, a hospital official was moving at the screening clinic of the National Medical Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Deputy Director Kwon continued, "Second, the fatality rate among the elderly is incomparably higher than other age groups, and those with underlying diseases are also at very high risk. Third, the risk, infectivity, and fatality rate of COVID-19 are higher than those of influenza, a representative respiratory infectious disease in winter." He stated, "For these reasons, the authorities have no choice but to continue proactive quarantine measures, strengthen medical responses, and adjust social distancing levels to suppress domestic infection scale and reduce casualties among high-risk groups, as has been done so far."

Meanwhile, regarding the daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases dropping to double digits this month, Deputy Director Kwon evaluated, "Although the trend is decreasing, 'silent transmission' continues, and there remains a constant possibility of explosive cluster outbreaks centered on medical institutions and welfare facilities." He also expressed a cautious stance that the trend of confirmed cases after the Chuseok holiday, when population movement is high, should be closely monitored. This is because COVID-19 spread previously increased during the golden holidays from late April to early May and the summer vacation period in July and August due to increased population movement.

He said, "Since COVID-19 caused by religious facilities and gatherings in August has not completely subsided, there is concern that cases may explosively increase again during the Chuseok holiday," adding, "We will observe the situation over the next week, and if stabilization occurs by mid-October, we may consider other policy directions through social distancing."

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