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There were 20,000 new confirmed cases of Corona in Korea, and the number of severe cases fell to 200 in 95 days.

The government will announce tomorrow (20th) when the 'settling period', the last of the normal recovery phases, will be implemented, and the most important 'removal of the quarantine obligation for confirmed patients' will be delayed by one more month from the week we originally talked about. 



This is the exclusive report by Cho Dong-chan, a medical professional reporter. 



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An official from the quarantine authorities told SBS that opinions within the government had gathered to extend the 7-day quarantine of confirmed patients by one more month. 



The main reason is that it reflects recent research that lifting quarantines can trigger infections. 



A Harvard University study in the United States found that even patients with mild symptoms of Omicron infection who received the vaccine excreted enough virus to infect others by the fifth day of diagnosis. 



[Lee Geun-Hwa/Professor of Microbiology at Hanyang University: The virus released after 5 days can eventually infect and spread to other people.] 



The possibility of new mutations and the removal of psychological quarantine will also be decided again a month later. That's why I decided to do it. 



If the quarantine obligation is lifted, living support expenses for confirmed patients will be cut off, and the burden of treatment costs will increase as well. 



It is not easy to apply uniformly as the symptoms are different for each confirmed patient.



[Confirmed: I am actually at a mild level, so I don't mind going out to work, but there are people who have severe fever or chills.]



However, the visits to nursing hospitals and facilities, which were temporarily allowed until the 22nd, will be extended by one month. I did.



Baek Kyung-ran, the new head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, emphasized data-driven scientific quarantine every day.



[Kyungran Paik / Director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Since more data has been accumulated, we will analyze the data based on this and develop a more evidence-based quarantine policy…

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However, there is no clear international standard for when the new government will lift quarantine obligations.



(Video editing: So-Young Lee, CG: Hong-Sik Kim)