South Korea was once considered a model country in combating the corona pandemic.

The country is now reaching global negative records in the number of infections.

South Korea reported 621,000 new infections a day last week, and more than 350,000 this Tuesday.

For a country that never had more than 7,580 infections a day until last year, this is a drastic change.

However, there is not much left of the excitement that occasionally prevailed in the first two years of the pandemic.

"People are jaded and only hope that normal everyday life can be returned soon," says student Kim Hee-soo.

Months of new anti-corona campaigns have left their mark on the population.

Patrick Welter

Correspondent for business and politics in Japan based in Tokyo.

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Despite the growing omicron wave, the government relaxed the corona requirements even before the presidential election in early March and is sticking to this course.

Vaccination or test proof obligations in shops have been abolished.

The seven-day entry quarantine for vaccinated people fell this week.

The curfew was gradually pushed back to 11 p.m.

Up to eight people are now allowed to meet privately in restaurants and bars again.

Wearing masks on the street

Fewer people than normal are on the streets of the capital Seoul, but far more than during the corona waves in the first two years.

As has been the case since the beginning of the pandemic, almost everyone wears a respiratory mask even if they are not obliged to do so.

People are queuing at test stations in front of the town hall or at the train station.

Antigen test kits can be bought at any small supermarket, priced at 6,000 won.

Free PCR tests are only available if doctors deem it necessary or if private antigen tests are positive.

Since February, the authorities have been asking those infected to stay at home and take care of themselves.

This is part of a new strategy to focus resources on emergencies.

The government is thus reacting to the sheer force of the omicron wave, but also to the relative harmlessness of the new variant compared to previous corona viruses.

Living with the virus is the buzzword.

The number of infections in South Korea dwarfs everything that has happened before.

On a seven-day average, the country currently has more than 7,500 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per day.

According to the figures from the “Our World in Data” website, this is a global negative record during the pandemic, apart from small islands.

In this calculation, Germany has around 2,280 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per day.

With the omicron wave, South Korea is experiencing the pandemic on an unprecedented scale.

The fact that it is still possible to live with the virus as far as possible is due to one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Despite the start of the vaccination campaign being delayed by months, 86.7 percent of South Koreans have now been double-vaccinated.

63 percent received a booster vaccination.

This gives the government the confidence to let the omicron wave pass without severe restrictions on economic activity.

Many Koreans you talk to in Seoul share this view.

South Korea caused a stir at the very beginning of the pandemic because a Christian sect had brought the virus from China to the city of Daegu and the country at times had the highest number of infections after China.

But then South Korea celebrated the special form of “K-quarantine”, which kept the number of infections very low by international comparison with strict surveillance, including by cell phone and contact tracing – until this year.

The outgoing government of previous President Moon Jae-in counts this among its great successes.

With the large number of infections, the number of deaths is also increasing, which has been more than 300 a day for a few days and people who died with Corona.

With a total of around 13,000 deaths, South Korea has been in a better position than many other countries in an international comparison since the beginning of the pandemic.

But on Tuesday, the government again increased the pace of work in the public crematoria so that grieving relatives do not have to wait for days.