The government diagnosed on the 3rd that the spread of Corona 19 in Korea, which had grown to the level of the'third pandemic', is gradually being suppressed and is slowly passing its peak.
It is based on the judgment that the infection suppression effect is gradually appearing in the overall quarantine situation by introducing'social distancing' (2.5 steps in the metropolitan area, 2 steps in the non-metropolitan area) and'special quarantine during the year-end and New Year'.
At a regular briefing held at the government office in Seoul on the 3rd, Son Young-rae, head of the Strategic Planning Division at the Central Accident Control Headquarters, said, "As a result of expanding the corona 19 preemptive test and continuing to strengthen the distance, the spread of this third epidemic is being blocked.
He commented on the recent outbreak of confirmed cases and explained, "Currently, it is judged that it is located at a fork in the state of a temporary peak or is slowly passing the peak."
According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, the average number of confirmed cases of local outbreaks in the last week (2020.12.27~2021.1.2) was 931.3 per day.
Compared to the 1,17 people in the previous week (12.20∼12.26), it is a decrease of 85.7 people.
In particular, the number of elderly patients aged 60 or older who are classified as'high-risk groups' averaged 284.1 per day, down by 34 from a week ago (318.1).
The government also positively evaluated the decrease in the number of cases of group infection and the decrease in indicators of the spread of infection.
The total number of new outbreaks in the last week was 21, down half of the previous week (53 cases).
The'Infection Reproduction Index', which indicates how many people around one confirmed person infect them, dropped from 1.11 to 1.0.
If the reproductive index of infection exceeds 1, the epidemic spreads, and if it falls below 1, the spread is suppressed.
However, Mr. Son said, "It is still too early to judge that it has reliably turned to a decline given the effect of reducing the inspection volume on holidays and weekends." "The rate of decline will be very slow due to the nature of this epidemic with a wide base of community infections. I expect."
He said, "If the outbreak can be reduced as much as possible in one month in January, it is expected that from February, more aggressive quarantine responses will be possible through treatments and COVID-19 vaccinations," he asked for individual citizens' cooperation in quarantine.
(Photo = Yonhap News)