Calls for an "Emergency Stop" Grow Louder... Will Special Measures Be Taken This Friday?

Non-Capital Regions Also at 'Very High' Risk
Insufficient Despite Expanded Capacity of Health Authorities

On the 13th, as the spread of COVID-19 continued, citizens are getting tested at a temporary screening clinic set up at Peace Plaza in World Cup Park, Mapo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] As COVID-19 infections continue to spread rapidly day by day, attention is focused on what measures the government will introduce to expand medical response capacity and enforce social distancing. While some voices call for an 'emergency stop,' health authorities are expected to announce drastic measures as early as Friday.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) on the 14th, the weekly risk level for non-metropolitan areas for the second week of December (5th?11th), announced the previous day, was evaluated as 'very high,' jumping two levels at once from the previous 'medium' stage. Following the metropolitan area (four consecutive weeks) and nationwide (three consecutive weeks), non-metropolitan areas have also reached a very high level.

The CDCH explained, "Amid the overall increase in cases, the metropolitan area continues to experience cases exceeding the limits of medical response capacity," adding, "There is concern that non-metropolitan areas will soon reach the limits of medical capacity as well." Last week, the ratio of cases to medical response capacity surged to 110.3%, surpassing 100% from 87.8% the previous week.

Health authorities are continuously working to expand capacity. Since the previous day, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters has been sequentially adding 821 beds across six infectious disease-dedicated nursing hospitals in the metropolitan area, and plans to additionally operate 225 beds in three base dedicated hospitals. Furthermore, following the administrative order announced last month, about 500 additional moderate-to-severe beds will be added by the end of the year, improving bed availability.

However, concerns have been raised that the speed of capacity expansion is not keeping up with the rapidly rising spread. The 'reproduction number,' an indicator of how many additional patients one infected person infects, has steadily increased to 1.23 compared to 1.06 in the fourth week of October.

Jung Eun-kyung, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, appeared on KBS Emergency Diagnosis the previous day and admitted the failure of predictions, saying, "We anticipated the increase in confirmed cases," but "due to the rapid decline in vaccine effectiveness among the elderly, the epidemic spread rapidly, and the initially predicted severe case rate of around 1.5% has increased to 2.5%." In fact, last week, the proportion of confirmed cases aged 60 and over was 33.5%, slightly down from 35.8% the previous week, but the total number of confirmed cases surged, increasing the number of elderly confirmed cases to 14,245.

Will 'Drastic Measures' Be Announced on Friday?

Jung Eun-kyung, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency [Photo by Yonhap News]

Within the government, coordination is ongoing regarding the implementation of high-intensity measures to overcome this situation. Commissioner Jung acknowledged the need for drastic measures to buy some time to endure the current situation. He explained, "Some time is needed to expand medical response capacity," and regarding the level of measures, "We are reviewing what the most effective social distancing measures at this point would be, such as further reducing the size of private gatherings or limiting the operating hours of multi-use facilities."

These measures are likely to be announced as early as this Friday. Son Young-rae, head of the Social Strategy Division at the Central Accident Response Headquarters, said in an interview on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' that "We need to observe the situation until around Wednesday or Thursday," and expressed the view that it is still premature to declare a crisis, adding, "We expect the effects of various strengthened vaccine pass measures, accelerated third-dose vaccinations, and private gathering restrictions to begin appearing from this week."

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