BA.5 697 Additional Cases Confirmed... Detection Rate Including Overseas Influx Reaches 56.3% (Update)

Domestic infections 49.1%, Overseas inflow 73.3%
Both increased compared to a week ago

The temporary COVID-19 screening site set up at Seoul Station Plaza on the 25th is crowded with citizens seeking testing. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] The proportion of COVID-19 cases detected with BA.5 has increased to 56.3% compared to the previous week.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 26th, the detection rate of BA.5 among domestic COVID-19 infections from the 17th to the 23rd was 49.1%, and for imported cases, it was 73.3%. During this period, a total of 697 new BA.5 detection cases were reported.

The combined detection rate of domestic infections and imported cases rose to 56.3%, up 4.3 percentage points from the previous week (52%). Domestic infections and imported cases were 47.2% and 62.9% respectively last week, but this week increased by 1.9 and 10.4 percentage points.

Ko Jae-young, Crisis Communication Team Leader at the Central Disease Control Headquarters, stated, "The dominant variant is defined as having a detection rate of over 50% domestically," adding, "Currently, BA.5 shows a higher detection rate than other sublineages and is expected to become the dominant strain soon." The variants with the next highest shares after BA.5 are BA.2.3 (7.7%) and BA.2 (6.5%).

Besides BA.5, newly detected variants during the week ending on the 23rd include 57 cases of BA.2.12.1, 60 cases of BA.4, and 3 cases of BA.2.75.

Regarding BA.2.75, Baek Kyung-ran, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said, "Currently, BA.2.75 is assessed to have somewhat faster transmissibility than previously identified variants, but there is insufficient information about its impact on severity or the disease itself. When the Delta Plus variant appeared previously, it did not become dominant and faded away, so whether BA.2.75 will undergo a similar process or become dominant like BA.5 requires further monitoring."

Earlier, in response to variant spread, the health authorities expanded the number of primary medical institutions conducting sample surveillance from 66 to 77 on the 24th of last month. An additional 73 secondary and tertiary medical institutions were secured, bringing the total sample surveillance institutions to 150. The authorities currently conduct over 6,400 genome analyses monthly for variant monitoring. Last month, the number of analyses by country were: Japan 1,841, Spain 4,245, Germany 13,922, among others.

Countries overseas are preparing measures related to the globally spreading BA.5. The United States announced five core strategies on the 12th (local time), including recommendations for vaccination and booster shots, improving access to COVID-19 treatments, and conducting pre-event testing for large gatherings.

Europe lowered the age for the fourth dose vaccination target from 80 years and older to 60 years and older on the 11th. Japan decided to maintain existing quarantine measures but will promote the fourth dose vaccination for high-risk groups such as the elderly.

Im Sook-young, Head of the Situation Management Division at the Central Disease Control Headquarters, regarding the increasing variant influx along with imported cases, said, "Since the Omicron wave, the goal of quarantine policy has shifted to minimizing harm by focusing on high-risk groups such as those with severe illness and death. Considering both the aspect of daily life recovery through overseas travel and the need to partially block the emergence of new variants through imported cases, quarantine policies are being formulated comprehensively."

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