Focus on Suppressing Severe Cases and Deaths from COVID-19... Reduction of Facilities Subject to Quarantine Pass

Announcement of Next Year's COVID-19 Prevention and Response Plan
Reorganization of Social Distancing, Continuous Improvement of Evaluation System

Guarantee 3rd Vaccination for Majority of Citizens Within Q1
Over 90 Million Vaccine Doses to Be Procured Next Year... SK Bioscience Pre-purchases 10 Million Doses

Continuous Expansion of Medical Response Capacity
Central Infectious Disease Hospital Scheduled for Completion by 2026

On the 30th, when 5,037 new COVID-19 cases were reported, citizens who visited the temporary screening clinic set up at Seoul City Hall Plaza were waiting to get tested. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] On the 30th, four ministries?the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency?announced their 2022 work plans under the vision of "Changes Made Together with the People, a Government that Takes Responsibility Until the End," focusing on COVID-19 quarantine response. These ministries identified the key tasks for next year as "promptly overcoming the current crisis and promoting a smooth transition to daily life recovery" and "establishing a sustainable quarantine system to lay the foundation for coexistence with COVID-19."

Resuming 'With COVID'... Increasing Home Treatment and Guaranteeing Third Vaccinations

The authorities currently view the ongoing outbreak as a crisis and have temporarily halted the "gradual recovery of daily life (With COVID)" to implement high-intensity quarantine measures. The current high-intensity measures, which are in effect until the 2nd of next month, are likely to be extended by about two weeks. The plan is to stabilize the situation first through these strong responses.

Once the situation stabilizes, social distancing measures are expected to be eased again. The government plans to reorganize social distancing by comprehensively evaluating factors such as hospital bed occupancy rates, variants, outbreak situations, and vaccination rates, focusing on "suppressing severe cases and deaths rather than universal restrictions," which was the focus when introducing With COVID. In particular, the vaccine pass (proof of vaccination or negative test) will be gradually lifted starting with low-risk multi-use facilities, and restrictions on the number of people at events and gatherings may be relaxed if only fully vaccinated individuals participate. Additionally, the evaluation system for COVID-19 risk, an indicator for daily life recovery, will be continuously improved to enhance accuracy.

A confirmed COVID-19 patient who started home treatment at an apartment in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, is receiving a 'home treatment kit' delivered by the Yangcheon-gu COVID-19 Home Treatment Task Force. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Strengthening medical response capacity, which is currently the most criticized issue during the outbreak phase, will also be continuously pursued. The government will solidify home treatment, which serves as the foundation for COVID-19 treatment. Home treatment kits will be delivered immediately upon confirmation, and daily health monitoring will be conducted through designated medical institutions. The number of these medical institutions will be increased to 300, and telemedicine and prescriptions will also be provided. For cases requiring in-person treatment, outpatient testing and treatment will be available at more than 70 locations nationwide. The living support allowance provided during home treatment will be increased from 339,000 KRW to 559,000 KRW per person. However, this will be provided only to vaccinated individuals, similar to the vaccine pass policy.

For frontline medical sites, an additional 6,900 infectious disease treatment beds will be secured by January next year to establish a medical system capable of responding even if 10,000 confirmed cases occur. The goal is to expand to 24,702 beds by next month. This will be achieved through previously implemented administrative orders, public hospital referrals, and expansion of dedicated base hospitals. Separate beds for childbirth and dialysis, reinforcement of special beds, and construction of modular beds will also be carried out. Bed operation efficiency will be improved to utilize the secured capacity effectively.

Considering the fatigue of medical personnel, military doctors and public health doctors will be assigned to intensive care hospitals, and nurses specializing in severe patients who are currently in training will be deployed to intensive care units immediately after completing their education. Additionally, infection control allowances will be paid to medical personnel involved in COVID-19 patient treatment, and sufficient compensation will be promised to medical institutions that have suffered losses due to COVID-19 duties.

To prevent the spread of infection, the majority of the population will be guaranteed the opportunity for a third vaccination by the first quarter of next year. To this end, proactive shortening of the interval for the third dose and focused on-site vaccination for the elderly have been implemented, and additional vaccination conveniences will be provided for the older population. Rapid responses to vaccine adverse reactions will also be made to alleviate public concerns about vaccination.

90 Million Vaccine Doses and Over 1.004 Million Treatment Courses to be Procured

To establish a sustainable quarantine system, additional procurement of vaccines and treatments will be made while strengthening domestic industrial capabilities. Furthermore, medical capacity will be actively expanded to respond to another pandemic if it occurs.

The authorities plan to invest 2.6 trillion KRW next year to secure vaccines. Currently, 60 million doses of Pfizer and 20 million doses of Moderna have been secured. In addition, an "option" to purchase an additional 60 million doses of Pfizer if needed has been secured. At least 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be purchased, including 10 million doses of SK Bioscience's "GBP510" vaccine through advance purchase.

The oral treatment, regarded as a "game changer," aims for an initial procurement of 1.004 million courses. Currently, Pfizer's "Paxlovid" has received emergency use authorization from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea. Contracts have been completed for 302,000 courses of Paxlovid and 242,000 doses of Merck (MSD)'s "Molnupiravir," with an additional 400,000 courses planned for procurement. The additional secured doses are likely to be Paxlovid, which has already been approved domestically.

Domestic vaccine and treatment development will also be actively supported. A cross-ministerial budget of 545.7 billion KRW has been allocated for next year for basic research, research and production infrastructure establishment, and development. Clinical phase 3 trials and other support will be concentrated with the goal of "commercializing the first domestic vaccine" within the first half of next year. The number of "dedicated living treatment centers for conducting treatment clinical trials" will increase from 2 to 7. Various supports for fostering the vaccine and raw material industries will also be expanded.

As continuous emergence of COVID-19 variants is a concern, the "whole genome sequencing surveillance network" capable of analyzing these will be expanded from 3 to 10 centers. The functions of dual screening clinics and temporary screening clinics will be integrated, and the testing information system will be improved to enhance the efficiency of diagnostic testing operations. Support will also be provided to expedite approval and introduction of diagnostic reagents specialized for variant viruses or those with improved speed and convenience.

Information used for epidemiological investigations will be enhanced in accuracy and speed through digital tracking techniques. Medical institution usage data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and immigration records from the Ministry of Justice will be computerized to reduce data collection time from the current 1?2 days to within 1 hour.

Central Infectious Disease Hospital to be Completed in 2026... Expanding Facilities and Personnel

On the 19th, a completion ceremony was held for the emergency treatment beds for critically ill patients (negative pressure isolation ward) at the National Medical Center in Seoul (Central Infectious Disease Hospital). The photo shows the intensive care unit inside the negative pressure isolation ward. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Large-scale expansion of infectious disease infrastructure to strengthen the medical system to prevent another pandemic will also be carried out. The biggest long-term goal is the construction of a central infectious disease hospital. Following the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in 2015, the government announced plans in 2018 to build a central infectious disease specialized hospital with 100 beds. A project budget of 129.4 billion KRW was allocated for this purpose.

In this context, in April, 50 billion KRW out of 700 billion KRW donated by the family of the late Lee Kun-hee, former chairman of Samsung Electronics, to be used for infectious disease crisis response, was designated for the construction of the central infectious disease hospital, significantly increasing the project's scale. This amount is four times the original project budget. However, with the large donation increasing the project's scale, the Ministry of Economy and Finance has announced plans to re-examine the project's appropriateness, causing delays.

A Ministry of Health and Welfare official explained, "The goal is to complete the appropriateness review and begin design within the first half of next year. If things proceed smoothly, the current target is to start construction within 2023." The completion target is 2026. The final scale is likely to exceed the original 100-bed plan, possibly reaching over 150 beds.

Centered on the central infectious disease hospital, a medical system for infectious disease response will be established, linking regional infectious disease specialized hospitals and local infectious disease management institutions. An additional 757 regular staff will be assigned to frontline public health centers, and support will be provided to secure 6 to 12 temporary staff per health center.

To prepare for another pandemic, procedures for emergency use authorization, rapid approval, and review of vaccines and treatments will be improved, and legal grounds will be established to compensate for adverse effects caused by the use of emergency authorized products.

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