7 out of 10 Koreans Support Transition to 'Everyday COVID'... Timing Set for Late November (Update)

Amid the ongoing process of distributing the COVID-19 coexistence national support fund, citizens are shopping at Yeongcheon Market in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul on the 7th. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] Seven out of ten citizens support the transition to 'COVID-19 in daily life.' The most common response for the timing of the transition was the end of November.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters of the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 7th that a nationwide survey on public perception of COVID-19 was conducted from the 30th of last month to the 1st of this month, targeting 1,000 adults aged 18 and over nationwide, and the results were as follows.

In this survey, 73.3% of the public supported the strategy of controlling the COVID-19 outbreak to a level manageable in daily life by monitoring the number of deaths and critically ill patients, known as the transition to 'COVID-19 in daily life.'

Regarding the appropriate timing for the transition to COVID-19 in daily life, more than 70% of respondents answered that the end of November, when the second vaccination dose is completed, was appropriate, with 52.4% giving this response as the highest proportion.

The proportion of respondents who said the manageable number of confirmed cases in daily life should be less than 100 per day was the highest at 41.9%. The Ministry of Health and Welfare explained that this reflects the public's perception that the occurrence should be suppressed to a minimum level.

Regarding the manageable number of deaths in daily life, 62.1% responded that it should be less than 1,000 annually (the current COVID-19 level), and 21.2% said less than 5,000 annually (the usual seasonal flu level).

Park Hyang, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters' quarantine team, said, "This is a level that can be achieved only by suppressing COVID-19 confirmed cases to the maximum extent, showing a perception different from the direction of recovery to daily life currently being pursued in countries like the UK and the US. It is judged to be a point that should be considered together when discussing ways to gradually restore daily life in the future."

Regarding public perception of COVID-19 quarantine policies, 75.9% of the public agreed with strengthening current quarantine rules, but the proportion of those who disagreed increased by 7.5 percentage points from last month to 21.9%.

In particular, negative evaluations were higher than positive evaluations for vaccine procurement policies, quarantine for variant control, post-vaccination response (monitoring adverse reactions, compensation, etc.), and loss compensation policies for small business owners and self-employed individuals.

Regarding perception of COVID-19 vaccination, 7 out of 10 people have been vaccinated, and among the 10 unvaccinated, 8 (76.1%) expressed willingness to be vaccinated. This is an 8 percentage point decrease compared to the previous survey.

Among those who completed vaccination, the willingness to receive an additional dose (booster shot) was very high at 90.9%.

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