<Anchor>



A world without masks, to be precise, the day when you don't have to wear a mask indoors is coming.

The quarantine authorities announced that the indoor mask mitigation standards were met.

At the earliest, that time could be before the Lunar New Year.



Cho Dong-chan is a medical journalist.



<Reporter> The



Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented four conditions for mask relief last month.

[Ji Young-mi/Chief of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (23rd of last month): When two or more of the four



indicators are met, (will be) voluntarily wearing a mask even indoors]



revealed.



Decreased for more than 2 weeks in a row, met 50% of intensive care unit space for one month met, met Decreased critically ill patients and weekly fatality rate less than 0.1%, half met High-risk group vaccination rate, unmet.



An official from the quarantine authorities revealed that the infection reproduction index has been on the decline for 4 consecutive weeks, and the weekly severity rate and fatality rate for 3 consecutive weeks.



The infection reproduction index fell below 1 for the first time since the 7th epidemic began at the end of October last year, and the number of severely ill patients itself did not decrease, but the neutralization rate was decreasing, so it was predicted that the number of severely ill patients would soon decrease.



Accordingly, it was predicted that the indoor mask easing measures expected after the Lunar New Year would be possible before the Lunar New Year at the earliest.



The most important indicator is the number of deaths, because the number of new critically ill patients who are candidates for death is decreasing.



[Jeong Ki-seok/Corona 19 Special Response Team: There is a new patient in critical condition (new patient).

Since the trend of new cases in critically ill patients is on the decline, we (the advisory committee) will have full-scale discussions around the beginning of next week.]



The quarantine authorities said that domestic mutations and the number of patients following the influx from China are the final variables, and this will also be determined in about a week. It is.



(Video editing: Choi Hye-young, CG: Ryu Sang-soo · Jang Seong-beom)