Indoor Mask Mandate Lifted but Confirmed Cases Decline... Reinfections Continue to Rise

[Asia Economy Reporter Byeon Seon-jin] Although the indoor mask mandate has been lifted, the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to decline.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 8th, the weekly new cases for the first week of February (January 29 to February 4) were 112,748, a 23.8% decrease compared to the previous week. The weekly daily average number of cases was 16,107, and the effective reproduction number (Rt) remained below 1 for five consecutive weeks at 0.90. An Rt below 1 indicates 'epidemic suppression.'

Im Suk-young, head of the Central Disease Control Headquarters' situation management team, stated, "It has been a week since the first phase of the indoor mask mandate adjustment was implemented. We were concerned that cases might temporarily increase after the adjustment, but fortunately, the downward trend in infections has continued so far."

Along with the decline in cases, the number of critically ill patients and deaths has also decreased. Last week, the number of critically ill patients in care decreased by 20.5% compared to the previous week, averaging 368 per day. However, the number of new deaths increased by 21.0% compared to the previous week, averaging 30 per day. The ICU bed occupancy rate has been decreasing for five consecutive weeks. The ICU bed occupancy rate, which was 25.0% in the fourth week of January, dropped to 18.8% in the first week of this month.

The health authorities assessed the weekly COVID-19 risk level as 'low' nationwide, in the metropolitan area, and in non-metropolitan areas, noting that although deaths have increased, overall indicators such as new cases and critically ill patients have improved. This marks the third consecutive week of maintaining a 'low' risk level since the third week of January.

However, suspected reinfection cases continue to rise. In the fourth week of January, the proportion of suspected reinfection cases among weekly confirmed cases was 23.03%, up from 22.80% the previous week. This means that about one in every four to five recent cases was reinfected with COVID-19. The health authorities urged vaccination or booster shots four months after infection to prevent reinfection.

The dominant variant BN.1 had a detection rate of 55.3% in the first week of February, an increase of 6.4 percentage points compared to the previous week. In contrast, the detection rate of BA.5 sublineage variants such as BA.5 and BQ.1, which were previously dominant, dropped to 27.3%, down 8.2 percentage points from the previous week. The XBB.1.5 variant, which is spreading in the United States, was detected 21 more times (13 domestic, 8 overseas), bringing the cumulative total to 71 cases (32 domestic, 39 overseas).