Isolation Period for Home Treatment Patients Set to 7 Days Starting Tomorrow... Daily Confirmed Cases at 20,000 (Update)

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] The isolation period for COVID-19 patients undergoing home treatment will be shortened from the current 10 days to 7 days starting from the 26th.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced at a regular briefing on the 25th that the management period for home treatment patients will be reduced to 7 days of health monitoring starting from the 26th.

This reduction follows the government's announcement the previous day to shorten the isolation period for vaccinated confirmed cases from 10 days to 7 days, thereby also reducing the home treatment period during isolation to 7 days.

Previously, home treatment patients had to undergo 7 days of health monitoring followed by an additional 3 days of self-isolation, totaling 10 days of isolation. However, from the 26th, the period will be shortened to 7 days of health monitoring without additional self-isolation.

However, those who have not completed vaccination must undergo 7 days of health monitoring followed by 3 days of voluntary isolation. This measure can also be applied retroactively to patients who started home treatment before the 26th.

Additionally, the health authorities plan to ease health monitoring during the health management period from 2-3 times a day to 1-2 times a day in the near future.

In response to the spread of Omicron, the medical and management infrastructure for home treatment will be expanded. To secure additional management capacity, plans to designate additional management medical institutions by city and province will be established. This is to prepare for up to 20,000 daily confirmed cases (maximum manageable capacity of 110,000) and to increase the number of management medical institutions to over 400 by the end of January as a priority.

Furthermore, to facilitate smooth face-to-face treatment for patients, budgets will be supported for equipment purchases and movement separation, aiming to expand outpatient treatment centers to 90 locations by the end of February.

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