"Will Gatherings of 8 People and Midnight Operations Be Allowed? ... Government Considers Easing Social Distancing"

Slowing Increase in Confirmed Cases, Focus on Severe and Death Management
Reduced Effectiveness of Social Distancing
Daily Recovery Committee to Meet in 2-3 Days for Feedback Collection

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The government is considering an early easing of social distancing measures. Since opinions from various sectors including self-employed workers, the medical community, and local governments will be gathered over two days starting from the 2nd, the adjustment plan for social distancing could be finalized and announced as early as at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting on the 4th.

Son Young-rae, head of the Social Strategy Division at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH), stated at the regular briefing on the 2nd, "Considering the rapid transmissibility of Omicron, we see that strengthening social distancing to block the spread of the outbreak is becoming less effective," adding, "At present, rather than suppressing the number of confirmed cases itself, we are focusing on management to minimize severe cases and deaths, while striving to minimize the actual damage caused by Omicron."

He continued, "Today and tomorrow, the Daily Recovery Support Committee and its subcommittee on quarantine and medical care will be held to evaluate the current quarantine situation and gather opinions on the need to adjust social distancing," and said, "We will listen to and discuss various opinions from quarantine and medical experts, related ministries, local governments, self-employed workers, and small business owners."

Earlier, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum also hinted at the possibility of adjusting social distancing during the COVID-19 Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting he presided over at the Government Seoul Office in the morning, saying, "We will carefully analyze the current quarantine situation regarding social distancing and gather discussions on the need for adjustments from the perspective of responding to Omicron."

The quarantine authorities judged that although the number of confirmed cases is increasing, the rate of increase is slowing down. Son said, "There is a trend of the rate of increase in confirmed cases slowing compared to the previous week," and added, "We need to observe this week's situation further to determine whether the slowdown in the increase rate is a general trend or an exceptional case."

Regarding reaching the peak, he added, "It is difficult to predict clearly, but whether the number of confirmed cases will decrease rapidly or decline gradually requires further observation of the peak and the subsequent outbreak situation."

He also mentioned that discussions are currently underway regarding the plan to consider a positive result from rapid antigen tests by experts as a confirmed case. Son said, "As the outbreak spreads, the positive predictive value of rapid antigen tests has significantly increased along with the rise in the positivity rate," adding, "For this reason, there have been ongoing suggestions to replace PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests with rapid antigen tests on-site."

He stated, "Especially when medical personnel conduct the tests professionally, the accuracy of rapid antigen tests is quite high," but added, "However, nothing has been decided yet, and discussions with experts are ongoing."

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