Despite Mask Mandate Lift, COVID-19 Cases Continue to Decline... 1 in 4 People Experience Reinfection

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Byeon Seon-jin] Although the indoor mask mandate was adjusted starting from the 30th of last month, the COVID-19 outbreak remains stable.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 15th, the weekly new confirmed cases for the second week of February (February 5?11) were 94,868, a 15.8% decrease compared to the previous week (112,748 cases). The infection reproduction number, which indicates the spread of the outbreak, was 0.81, maintaining below 1 for six consecutive weeks. The average daily number of severe and critical patients hospitalized was 292, and the number of deaths was 20, representing decreases of 20.7% and 34.7% respectively compared to the previous week.

Considering the improvement in key outbreak indicators, the health authorities maintained the weekly COVID-19 risk level as 'low' nationwide, in the metropolitan area, and in non-metropolitan areas. This marks the fourth consecutive week that all regions have maintained a low weekly risk level. The authorities plan to review additional easing measures for remaining mask mandate facilities such as public transportation if this downward trend continues.

However, as of the fourth week of January, the severe case rate was 0.25% and the fatality rate was 0.11%, slightly increasing by 0.03 percentage points and 0.02 percentage points respectively compared to the third week of January. Im Suk-young, the Situation General Manager of the Central Disease Control Headquarters, stated, "The slight increase in severe case and fatality rates is believed to be due to the continuously rising proportion of elderly individuals among the total confirmed cases," adding, "It is very important to promote bivalent vaccine administration and actively prescribe therapeutic drugs to high-risk groups."

Among the variant viruses, the detection rate of BN.1 rose by 4.5 percentage points from the previous week to 59.8%. The BA.5 lineage, which was previously dominant, including BA.5 (11.1%) and BQ.1 (7.3%), accounted for 23.7%, down from 27.3% the previous week. The recombinant variant XBB.1.5, which is spreading in the United States, increased from 1.2% to 1.9% compared to the week before last. The estimated reinfection rate as of the first week of February was 24.85%, up from 23.02% the previous week. This means that one in four confirmed cases has been infected with COVID-19 two or more times.