Treatment Supply Increased 100 Times Amid COVID-19 Resurgence

Health authorities are significantly increasing the supply of COVID-19 treatments amid the resurgence of the virus.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on the 8th, 76,043 doses of COVID-19 treatments were supplied last month to city and provincial public health centers, hospitals, and pharmacies.

This represents an approximately 103-fold increase compared to June (737 doses) and about 42 times more than May (1,812 doses).

With the emergence of the new Omicron variant KP.3, the number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations in the fourth week of July reached 465, which is 5.1 times higher than the 91 cases reported in the first week of July.

COVID-19 Vaccination

Following the rise in patients, the weekly usage of COVID-19 treatments also surged from 1,272 doses in the fourth week of June to about 42,000 doses in the fifth week of July, a 33-fold increase.

The KDCA anticipates that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases may continue to rise and plans to further expand the supply of treatments such as Paxlovid, focusing on city and provincial public health centers. Initially, the supply will be expanded through these centers, and the frequency of supply deliveries has been increased from once to twice a week.

The KDCA stated, "To prevent shortages of treatments in the field, we are closely monitoring real-time usage and inventory levels, and are additionally supplying stock management quantities to city and provincial public health centers to respond to real-time demand within the regions."