<Anchor> In



Korea, too, the rate of spread of micron mutations is gradually increasing. In one kindergarten, several children were infected with Omicron, and the number of patients increased by about 50 in one day.



It is said that Omicron may become the dominant species in Korea sooner than expected, and medical reporter Cho Dong-chan pointed out how to deal with it.



<Reporter> This



is a kindergarten in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do. 



Twenty children attending here have been infected with the omicron mutation.



There are 44 more confirmed cases related to this place, and we are testing whether it is Omicron.



Nine people at a public institution in Gwangju were also confirmed with Omicron, and eight additional confirmed cases are under investigation.



Nationwide, 49 people were added on a daily basis, bringing the total to 278. 



Domestic infections account for 71%, and those in their 20s and 50s account for 66.3% and those under their 20s account for 26.7%.



[Park Young-joon / Head of Epidemiological Investigation Team, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: (Omicron) Cases of severe illness and death have not been confirmed so far. There are reports of confirmed cases of pneumonia.]



This is a graph of confirmed

cases

in the UK where Omicron is actually the dominant species.



It's the worst rise ever since November 11th, when Omicron appears to be the dominant force.



It is the first time that the average daily number of confirmed cases in a week has exceeded 80,000.



In order to prevent this upward trend, the UK and Europe took out the third vaccination card.



But let's look at last week's European report, it seems that it will be difficult to break this uptrend even if we increase the rate of vaccination.



Changing to a fast test instead of the current slow PCR will help us quickly find and isolate confirmed cases.



However, the UK death toll is at its lowest this year.



The death toll per 1 million people is not much different from that of Korea.



This is because, although the preventive effect of the second vaccination alone decreases, the effect of severe prevention is large.



In one study, there are few neutralizing antibodies that block Omicron, but 90% of the cells' ability to fight Omicron is maintained.



In Korea, it is said that it will play a clear role in the 3rd vaccination, the secondary vaccination rate reaching 92% of adults, and Omicron's defense in over 10 million people.



There are also studies showing that people who are vaccinated after natural infection or who are infected after being vaccinated are up to 10 times more resistant to Omicron than those who received only the vaccine.



It's called super immunity, but it may not happen in older people.



Another means of stopping omicrons is a mask.



This is because the faster the spread, the more important it is to block in real time, and even if infected, only a small amount of the virus is transmitted to others.



(Video coverage: Hwang Ji-young, CG: Uhm So-min, Ryu Sang-soo)



▶ "73% of new cases are infected" Omicron became dominant in the United States