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Recently, it was found that the corona situation in Korea has met the standards for mitigating the wearing of indoor masks.
If only the impact from China is stabilized, it is expected to ease before the Lunar New Year.
This is reporter Nam Joo-hyun's report.
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Last month, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proposed four conditions for easing the indoor mask duty.
[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]
New confirmed cases decreased for more than two consecutive weeks until last week , We succeeded in securing 50% of the intensive care unit space for one month, and although there is no decrease in critically ill patients, the weekly fatality rate is below 0.1%, and the vaccination rate for high-risk groups is not enough.
2.5 out of 4 conditions are met.
The infection reproduction index has fallen below 1 for the first time since the 7th epidemic, and the number of severely ill patients is expected to decrease soon as the severity rate of severely ill patients has decreased.
If the number of new critically ill patients decreases, it is expected that indoor mask mitigation measures will be possible before Lunar New Year at the earliest.
The influx of confirmed patients and new mutations from China is also a variable, and health authorities believe that China is already passing the peak of the epidemic.
[Jeong Ki-seok/Corona 19 Special Response Team: Fortunately, if the situation in China is currently peaking and trending down in large cities, it will not greatly affect the four indicators we are planning.]
The quarantine authorities said that after analyzing the inflow from China, policy judgment will be possible next week.