□ Wang Gang, our correspondent in South Korea

　　Entering mid-March, the number of newly confirmed new crown cases in South Korea in a single day exceeded 300,000 for several consecutive days.

South Korea's epidemic prevention department predicts that the peak of this wave of epidemics is coming, when the number of newly confirmed cases in a single day may exceed 354,000.

Some experts pointed out that South Korea may face a crisis in response to the epidemic in late March or early April, and the number of critically ill patients and deaths will reach a new high.

　　Since the current President Moon Jae-in is about to step down in May, the Korean people are also paying attention to the government's response to the new crown epidemic during the transition of power and the possible epidemic prevention policies of the Yin Xiyue government after taking office.

　　This round of epidemic will reach its peak

　　According to the report of the Central Epidemic Prevention Countermeasures Headquarters of South Korea on March 10, as of 0:00 that day, 327,549 new cases of new coronary pneumonia were newly confirmed in South Korea compared with 0:00 the previous day, and the cumulative number of confirmed cases was 5,539,650, which means that every 10 Koreans have 1 in 10 South Koreans. People have had coronavirus.

Although the number of new cases in a single day decreased by 14,889 from the previous day, the number of new cases exceeded 300,000 for two consecutive days, which was 1.6 times that one week ago (March 3) and 1.9 times that two weeks ago (February 24).

　　Among the new cases that day, there were 327,490 domestic community infections and 59 imported cases in South Korea.

Divided by age, there were 55,456 cases in the high-risk group aged 60 and above, accounting for 16.9% of the total number of newly confirmed cases.

There were 206 new deaths that day, bringing the total number of deaths to 9,646.

There are 1,113 critically ill patients, an increase of 26 cases compared with the previous day, and the utilization rate of critical ICU beds is 61.1%.

As of 0:00 on the 10th, there are currently 1,294,673 patients in South Korea receiving home treatment for the new crown.

　　Lee Sang-won, head of the Epidemiological Investigation and Analysis Division of the Central Quarantine Countermeasures Headquarters in South Korea, believes that the current wave of the epidemic is basically close to its peak, and there may be an inflection point in the next two weeks.

　　South Korea's epidemic prevention department has predicted that the number of newly confirmed cases in a single day may peak on March 12 (354,000 cases), but the forecast did not take into account the impact of the recent Korean government's further relaxation of epidemic prevention measures, so the actual peak may be higher than 354,000 example.

　　Zheng Jae-hoon, a professor of preventive medicine at Gachon University School of Medicine in South Korea, recently predicted that March 15 and 16 will be important time points, because the number of newly diagnosed new crown cases in a single day announced on these dates may exceed an order of magnitude.

　　The crisis is imminent

　　In the face of the looming epidemic response crisis, the South Korean Central Epidemic Prevention and Countermeasure Headquarters has recently raised the risk of the new crown epidemic to the highest level.

　　In response to the current epidemic prevention situation in South Korea, many experts expressed concern.

Some experts predict that the time when South Korea's new crown epidemic responds to the crisis is not now, but one to two weeks after the inflection point of the epidemic, that is, at the end of March or early April.

By then, the number of critically ill patients and deaths will reach a new high.

　　In the past month, the mutant strain of Omicron has spread rapidly in South Korea, and the number of critically ill patients in South Korea has returned to more than 1,000. It is expected to continue to increase at a rate of 50 to 100 per day in the future.

South Korea's healthcare system will again risk a shortage of hospital beds as a result.

At present, South Korea has a total of 2,751 critically ill beds, but the number of critically ill patients with the new crown that can be treated at the same time does not exceed 1,800.

　　The latest data also shows that the detection rate of the Omicron strain in South Korea is 99.96%.

This means that more than 100 days after the Omicron strain entered South Korea, the delta strain has been completely replaced.

　　At present, the detection rate of Omicron's subtype variant "BA.2" (Invisible Omicron) in South Korea has also reached 22.9%.

According to the assessment of the World Health Organization, the transmission power of the invisible Omicron may be about 30% higher than that of the Omicron strain, and the average intergenerational interval is about 0.5 days faster. The extent to which it affects the spread of the epidemic remains to be monitored.

　　The head of South Korea's epidemic prevention department said that the fatality rate of Omicron is similar to that of the seasonal flu, but it is limited to those who have completed the third dose of the vaccine.

Unvaccinated people suffer a much higher fatality rate than seasonal flu.

　　Calls for stronger epidemic prevention measures

　　With the daily number of new confirmed cases of new crowns hitting new highs, the epidemic prevention policies that Yin Xiyue's new government may adopt has attracted attention from all walks of life in South Korea.

　　Yin Xiyue, who was elected as the new president of South Korea on March 10, announced during the campaign that he would significantly relax epidemic prevention controls after taking office, and immediately discussed how to provide subsidies to small businesses such as self-employed individuals who have suffered losses due to the epidemic.

　　Concerned about the epidemic prevention policy, the Korean Medical Association's New Crown Epidemic Countermeasures Expert Committee issued an open letter on March 8, pointing out that the hasty relaxation of isolation measures when the number of confirmed cases has not reached its peak will bring misinformation to the public and may lead to The outbreak has deteriorated beyond control.

　　The Korean Medical Association's COVID-19 Countermeasures Expert Committee recommended that the government carefully consider the advice of medical experts and reconsider the overall guidelines for mitigating epidemic prevention measures.

The open letter pointed out that the South Korean government should make substantial changes to strengthen epidemic prevention measures.

Especially for nursing homes and mental hospitals with a high possibility of mass infection, the epidemic prevention guidelines of stages 3 to 4 should be maintained, and necessary epidemic prevention measures should be taken for various daily activities, visits, meetings, and meals.

　　The open letter also calls on major medical institutions in South Korea to strengthen epidemic prevention publicity and self-epidemic measures to reduce the reduction of medical service forces caused by the infection of medical staff.

At the same time, the open letter calls on the South Korean government to purchase more drugs for the treatment of new coronary pneumonia and expand the scope of personnel to reduce the possibility of critical illnesses as much as possible.