COVID-19 Hospitalizations Down 20% in a Week... "Peak of the Wave Has Passed" (Update)

KDCA Holds COVID-19 Interagency Review Meeting

The number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients has decreased by more than 20% in a week, indicating that the peak of this summer's outbreak has passed.

As COVID-19 resurges, the number of pediatric patients has nearly tripled in the past two weeks. On the 16th, a child is undergoing a temperature check at Seongbuk Woori Children's Hospital in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, before receiving medical treatment. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On the 28th, Ji Young-mi, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), announced this during a joint meeting with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the Ministry of Education, the Office for Government Policy Coordination, and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to review the COVID-19 outbreak trends and response status.

According to the KDCA's COVID-19 sentinel surveillance analysis, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the fourth week of August was 1,164, a 20.5% decrease compared to the previous week. Previously, the number of hospitalized patients surged from 226 in the third week of July to 474 in the fourth week, then 879 in the first week of August, 1,366 in the second week, and 1,464 in the third week.

Commissioner Ji stated, "We assess that the peak of this summer's COVID-19 outbreak has passed," adding, "Considering recent incidence trends and last summer's outbreak situation, the scale of cases is expected to be much lower than the initially predicted weekly maximum of 350,000, with an estimated total within 200,000."

By age group, among the total 16,407 hospitalized patients, 65.9% were elderly aged 65 or older. This was followed by 18% aged 50-64, 10% aged 19-49, 4% aged 0-6, and 2% aged 7-18. In wastewater surveillance, conducted to complement the monitoring of infectious disease trends including COVID-19, the viral concentration decreased by 3 percentage points compared to the previous week. The dominant variant driving the current outbreak is KP.3, accounting for 64.1% of cases.

The KDCA announced that it is additionally importing 262,000 doses of COVID-19 therapeutics secured through contingency funds by the end of this week and supplying them to public health centers and pharmacies nationwide. The current stock of therapeutics on site averages 40,000 to 50,000 doses but is expected to expand to over 100,000 doses this week. Commissioner Ji explained, "Considering that the recent daily usage of therapeutics is 5,000 doses, the stock on site will hold more than 20 times the daily usage," and added, "The supply of therapeutics is expected to stabilize within this week."

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has strengthened the medical response system by maximizing the use of infection disease response beds such as nationally designated inpatient treatment beds and emergency treatment beds to provide timely treatment according to the severity of COVID-19 patients. Patients visiting regional emergency medical centers will be distributed to local emergency medical institutions and facilities, and to alleviate the concentration of emergency room patients during weekends and nights, fever clinics will be operated through public hospitals.

Additionally, to ensure that COVID-19 patients can receive prompt treatment at hospitals within their own regions, hospitals with previous experience as dedicated COVID-19 hospitals will be designated as cooperative hospitals to establish a collaborative system for COVID-19 patient hospitalization.

The Ministry of Education has communicated COVID-19 infection prevention guidelines to all schools. Students infected with COVID-19 who experience high fever or severe respiratory symptoms are advised to attend school starting the day after symptoms disappear, and the days they do not attend school will be counted as attendance.

Commissioner Ji stated, "Since the first joint meeting of related ministries on August 8, the government has been cooperating to implement measures addressing the supply of therapeutics, self-test kits, and issues in medical and school settings," and added, "We will continue to maintain an effective response system for infectious disease outbreaks, including COVID-19, through close inter-ministerial cooperation."