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| Medical workers cool down near an air conditioner installed at a COVID-19 screening center in Songpa District, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap |
Health ministry tightens monitoring of BA.4, BA.5 subvariants
By Lee Hyo-jin
Korea appears to be at the start of another COVID-19 wave, with the number of daily new infections nearly doubling in a week amid the growing presence of Omicron subvariant BA.5, according to medical experts, Friday.
The experts, however, gave different views on how big the wave will be. Some said it would be smaller and less fatal than previous ones, while others warned that daily cases may surge to the 100,000 daily infections range.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 19,323 new infections for Thursday, raising the aggregated total to 18,471,172. After rebounding to an upward trend since the end of June, the daily numbers of new infections this week have nearly doubled from the previous week.
Chon Eun-mi, a respiratory disease specialist at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, viewed that an uptick in travel and gatherings in the summer vacation season and the growing presence of BA.5 and other strains of the Omicron variant could fuel infections in the coming weeks.
"From what we know so far, the BA.5 subvariant is over 30 percent more contagious than the BA.2 subvariant (or 'Stealth Omicron'). Recent studies show that it may even evade immunity created from vaccines and previous infections," she told The Korea Times. "Plus, nobody can be sure whether BA.4 and BA.5 are the final strains."
In the last week of June, the BA.5 subvariant accounted for 24 percent of the total number of infections here, more than triple that of the previous week, according to the KDCA.
However, Chon was somewhat cautiously optimistic about how the situation could develop.
"On a positive note, the newly-emerging variants seem to be causing less severe symptoms. So if the BA.5 becomes dominant in the new wave, it is likely to cause fewer fatalities and socio-economic damage than previous ones," she said.
But she advised that the government should expand face-to-face treatment of coronavirus patients, which are currently allowed at about 6,000 designated local clinics, to general hospitals, in order to take care of elderly patients and those with underlying diseases better.
"The sixth wave has already begun. Through it is difficult to make a prediction right now, daily cases may surge up to 100,000 earlier than expected," said Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital.
Kim, who had often criticized the previous Moon Jae-in government's virus spread control measures, saying that many were driven by political intentions, said the current Yoon Suk-yeol administration isn't doing much better.
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| Vice Health Minister Lee Ki-il speaks during a COVID-19 response meeting held at the Government Complex Seoul, Friday. Lee has been presiding over COVID-19-related meetings since his appointment in May, as the health minister post has remained vacant for nearly two months. Yonhap |
In particular, he voiced concerns about the leadership vacuum at the health ministry. The minister post has remained vacant for nearly two months as both the nominees ― Chung Ho-young and Kim Seung-hee ― withdrew their considerations after being mired in allegations of ethical lapses.
"It is hard to understand why the government is not taking preemptive measures, such as giving the KDCA chief more authority to act as an interim control tower to oversee the drawing up of quarantine measures," he said.
The health ministry, for its part, said Friday that it has tightened surveillance on the spread of the BA.4 and BA. 5 subvariants overseas.
"The percentage of cases caused by the BA.5 subvariant is rapidly growing in many countries, but it hasn't been followed by a surge in critical cases or deaths," said ministry spokesperson Son Young-rae, cautiously predicting that its fatality rate could be similar or lower to those of earlier Omicron subvariants. He also said the government will announce next Wednesday whether to make revisions to the current antivirus measures, such as in the social distancing rules.
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