The first known COVID-19 death in South Korea was a 63-year-old hospitalized at a closed ward of a psychiatric hospital in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province. The man, who was schizophrenic, died with pneumonia on Feb. 19, 2020, at the hospital where he had been a resident for over 20 years. He tested positive postmortem. In less than a week after his death, six more at the hospital lost their lives to the virus. All of the 101 patients save for just two ended up getting infected. The outbrea

Social Affairs Feb. 22, 2022

South Korea’s top health official said Monday the surge the country is experiencing now is necessary to move toward an endemic phase from the pandemic, and omicron’s milder severity aids the transition. Son Young-rae, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s spokesperson, said the recent uptick in hospitalizations and deaths driven by the omicron variant “does not warrant the same level of alarm as with the delta wave.”　 From cases diagnosed Jan. 16-29, the overall f

Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2022

South Korea stopped monitoring COVID-19 patients younger than 60 beginning Feb. 10 in a switch to what is known as a self-care scheme, after the milder omicron overtook delta as the dominant strain here.  But following deaths among younger patients isolating at home, concerns are rising over possible safety oversights in the new system. 　 According to health authorities Monday, at least two patients died in the Seoul area while in home isolation over the weekend. In Suwon, Gyeonggi Provi

Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2022

A new president is about to be elected, leading South Korea through the next phase of the pandemic. So why is COVID-19 getting so little attention in the presidential race? 　 It wasn’t until after a hospital bed shortage induced by the “living with COVID-19” scheme in November that the leading candidates -- the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s Lee Jae-myung and main opposition People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeol -- set up dedicated committees for outlining their p

Politics Feb. 21, 2022

South Korea has changed the rules around voting to let people infected with COVID-19 cast their ballots in polling stations, as the omicron surge places record numbers of people under self-quarantine. On the second day of advance voting, March 5, and on the day of the presidential election, March 9, eligible voters with active cases will be able to vote in person past the regular hours, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The National Assembly passed the exceptional measure into a bill on Monday. As many as

Social Affairs Feb. 15, 2022

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate for South Korea’s centrist People Party, will prioritize sound judgments based on science over populism as Korea seeks a safe exit from the pandemic, according to his COVID-19 adviser. Dr. Park Jin-kyu, COVID-19 adviser to Ahn and the former Korea Medical Association vice president, told The Korea Herald that response has been swayed by political meddling. Ahn -- the qualified medical doctor, software engineer and two-time presidential candida

Politics Feb. 11, 2022

South Korea is determined to go easy on omicron, which is behind the ongoing record surge in COVID-19 patients, in the hope that the new dominant variant will not be as bad as the ones that came before. But is this reckless?　 The rationale for the shift to the omicron response plan is that the new variant is less threatening than its predecessor, delta, the government says. Messaging from health officials surrounding omicron has been consistently hopeful. Son Young-rae, spokesperson for th

Social Affairs Feb. 4, 2022

From Thursday onward, Korea has begun its transition to the omicron response that entails a reduced governmental role in controlling the spread of the coronavirus and patient management, but a lot of the foretold changes are yet to be implemented in practice. Despite announcing that select primary care doctor offices would take on rapid antigen testing and both remote and in-person care of nonhospitalized patients, the list of clinics providing these services had not yet been disclosed as of

Social Affairs Feb. 3, 2022

Korea is limiting the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests -- which have long remained the gold standard of COVID-19 diagnosis -- in parts of country where omicron is dominant, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare Friday. Coming into effect from Jan. 26 in three cities of Gwangju, Pyeongtaek, Anseong and the entire South Jeolla Province, the new testing protocol will be expanded to the rest of Korea once omicron officially becomes dominant nationwide. Omicron showed up in 47 p

Social Affairs Jan. 21, 2022

Omicron is spreading through South Korea at a faster pace with the potential to cause a sharper rise than earlier projections, according to an expert advising the government. Dr. Jung Jae-hun, a preventive medicine specialist and COVID-19 adviser to the prime minister, said Thursday the omicron wave is “feared to be worse than previously thought.” Three weeks ago, all of the scenarios modeled by Jung’s team showed more than 10,000 cases a day and up to 2,000 intensive care a

Social Affairs Jan. 20, 2022

The South Korean government said Monday it would appeal a Seoul court’s decision to suspend the vaccine pass mandate requiring children and adolescents to be fully vaccinated or negative in tests to access public places. The Ministry of Health and Welfare told a news briefing it would incorporate a part of the court’s decision to retract the mandate at lower-risk facilities for adults, while maintaining that the passes for school-age children and teens are necessary to protect them

Social Affairs Jan. 17, 2022

Seoul court on Friday afternoon has suspended the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s forthcoming policy requiring kids as young as 12 to be fully vaccinated or tested to access public spaces until a further decision is made. It also suspended the requirement for those entering large stores to have proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test. The requirement for minors was to begin taking effect from next month, or March at the latest. The court said “the incidence of hospi

Social Affairs Jan. 14, 2022

When the inevitable omicron explosion descends on South Korea, the kind of restrictive approach to dealing with the virus will have run its course, top officials say. In a news briefing Friday, the Health and Economy ministries said Korea will focus on keeping its businesses and other aspects of daily life as open as possible once the new variant starts dominating the scene. The characteristics of omicron called for “a shift in a paradigm toward a more flexible response,” said He

Social Affairs Jan. 14, 2022

Omicron is by far the most heavily mutated variant of COVID-19 to date, and on course to dethrone delta as the dominant strain. Since the strain was first detected in Korea on Dec. 1, the variant has been found in over 160 cases here. Of them, 39 have recent travel history and the rest are close or indirect contacts. Community transmission, public health authorities say, is probably already underway. To understand the implications of the newest variant, too nascent to be able to grasp the f

Social Affairs Dec. 19, 2021

As deaths and hospitalizations continue a record-breaking streak, the South Korean government says it has yet to decide if COVID-19 restrictions will be brought back. The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s spokesperson Son Young-rae told Tuesday’s news briefing that it “may need to evaluate” if reintroducing restrictions is necessary. He denied accusations that the government was “delaying restrictions,” explaining, economic implications also had to be taken

Social Affairs Dec. 14, 2021