COVID-19 Decline Continues... Arrival Testing for Travelers from China Lifted Starting Tomorrow

As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to decline, the weekly average daily confirmed cases have dropped to the low 10,000s.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) on the 28th, the weekly average daily confirmed cases for the 4th week of February (19?25) was 10,070, a 13.2% decrease compared to the previous week (11,598). Accordingly, the effective reproduction number (Rt), which indicates how many people one infected person transmits the virus to, was 0.90, remaining below '1'. This index has stayed below 1 for eight consecutive weeks.

The weekly average daily number of critically ill patients decreased by 19.5% from the previous week (236) to 190. The weekly average daily critically ill patient count had been in the 500s for four consecutive weeks since the 3rd week of December last year but then declined, falling below 200 for the first time. The average daily new deaths were 14, down 26.7% from the previous week (19). Among the critically ill patients currently hospitalized and the average daily deaths, those aged 60 and over accounted for the majority at 81.6% (155 patients) and 92.9% (13 patients), respectively.

The intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy rates nationwide, in the Seoul metropolitan area, and in non-metropolitan areas remained below 20% for two consecutive weeks. The ICU bed occupancy rate nationwide decreased from 17.1% to 14.4%, and the semi-intensive care bed occupancy rate also dropped from 19.7% to 15.5%.

The health authorities decided to assess the weekly COVID-19 risk level for the 4th week of February as ‘low’ nationwide, in the Seoul metropolitan area, and in non-metropolitan areas. This decision considered the decreases in new confirmed cases, new critically ill patients, deaths, and bed occupancy rates.

The detection rate of the Omicron BN.1 variant nationwide was 57.6%, a 1.5 percentage point decrease from the previous week. The BA.5 sublineages, including BA.5 (7.5%), BQ.1 (8.5%), and BQ.1.1 (3.3%), increased by 0.8 percentage points from the previous week to 21.4%.

During the week from the 19th to the 25th, a total of 14,348 people entered South Korea from China, of whom 13,773 were tested and 68 were confirmed positive. The positivity rate was 0.5%. The positivity rate among arrivals from China decreased by 0.1 percentage points from the previous week (0.6%). In response to the stabilization of the COVID-19 situation in China, the government has decided to lift the mandatory COVID-19 PCR testing requirement for arrivals from China starting next month.

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