Announcement of Criteria for Transition to Daily Recovery Phase and Emergency Plan Activation on the 16th

Decision on Phase Transition or Maintenance and Emergency Plan Activation
COVID-19 Prevention Indicators to Be Released on the 16th
Considering Medical Resource Capacity and ICU and Hospital Bed Utilization Rates

On the 9th, citizens continued to visit the temporary COVID-19 screening clinic in front of Seoul City Hall to get tested. Photo by Mun Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The quarantine authorities will announce the phased daily recovery COVID-19 management indicator system on the 16th.

With the phased daily recovery having started on the 1st, they will disclose the quarantine indicators used to determine whether to move to the next phase, maintain the current phase, or implement emergency plans.

At a briefing on the 9th, Lee Sang-won, head of the Epidemiological Investigation and Analysis Team at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, said, "When setting management indicators, the key points will be 'how much medical resource capacity is available' and 'whether critical patients can be managed to reduce deaths.'" He added, "The most important factors are the ICU utilization rate and bed availability. The daily recovery phase will be decided not mechanically by a single indicator but through expert discussions and comprehensive situational assessments."

Previously, the government proposed a three-phase daily recovery implementation plan at six-week intervals, with a four-week implementation period followed by a two-week evaluation period.

Whether to proceed to the next phase will be determined by comprehensively evaluating the vaccination completion rate (70% for the first dose, 80% for the second dose), ICU and bed capacity (40% or more), the scale of weekly severe cases and deaths, the scale of the outbreak, and the infection reproduction number.

If the quarantine situation is stable, the next phase will be implemented after six weeks; however, if it is precarious, the current phase will be maintained or an emergency plan will be activated. The detailed conditions for activating the emergency plan have not been disclosed.

The quarantine authorities have mentioned that the conditions for activating the emergency plan include ▲ an ICU bed utilization rate of 75% or more or a 7-day moving average of 70% or more to assess the increase rate of confirmed cases, and ▲ a 7-day moving average ICU bed utilization rate of 60% or more at infectious disease-dedicated hospitals or a current 7-day moving average of 3,500 to 4,000 or more confirmed cases as a preliminary warning.

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