Original title: 4,116 confirmed cases in a single day set a record South Korean Prime Minister: the effect of the vaccine has dropped sharply
[文/观察者网 王世纯]Three weeks after the release, the new crown epidemic in South Korea has surged again, and the number of new diagnoses in a single day has set a new record.
According to Yonhap News Agency’s report on November 24, South Korea’s Central Anti-epidemic Countermeasures Headquarters reported on the 24th that as of 0:00 on the 24th, South Korea had newly confirmed 4,116 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, and a total of 4,250,65 confirmed cases. This is the highest record since the outbreak of the epidemic in South Korea on January 20 last year.
Regarding the severe epidemic, South Korean Prime Minister Kim Fuqian said that the situation is very serious and may consider restarting the emergency plan at any time. Jin Fuqian also confirmed that South Korea is facing problems such as a sharp decline in the effectiveness of vaccination and a continuous increase in the rate of severe illness. Among the recent confirmed cases over the age of 60, more than 80% have completed the vaccination. Jin Fuqian suggested that “strengthening injections” should be promoted urgently and the vaccination rate of children and adolescents should be increased.
Yonhap News Agency, Chosun Ilbo and other media reported on November 24 that on the 24th, Jin Fuqian made an opening speech at the Central Disaster Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting held in the government’s Sejong Building, saying: “…the epidemic situation is worse than expected.” In the risk assessment published for the first time, the national risk level was “high” and the capital area was “very high”. From the perspective of the capital region alone, the situation is extremely urgent, and an emergency plan may be considered at any time. “
Data from South Korea’s Central Anti-epidemic Countermeasures Headquarters showed that among the new cases that day, there were 4,088 community-infected cases, including 3,125 (76.4%) in the metropolitan area and 963 (23.6%) in other regions. There are 28 imported cases abroad. There were 35 deaths that day, with a total of 3363 deaths, with an average fatality rate of 0.79%. There are currently 586 critically ill patients, an increase of 37 cases from the previous day, which is also the highest single-day value since the outbreak of the epidemic. This is the first time that South Korea has confirmed more than 4,000 cases in a single day.
In the past week, the number of new diagnoses in South Korea has surged. Source: South Korean Government NetworkJin Fuqian also mentioned that South Korea is facing a sharp decline in the effectiveness of vaccination, and the rate of severe illness continues to rise. He said that in the past two weeks, more than 80% of the confirmed cases over the age of 60 have completed the vaccination. This proves from the side that the effect of inoculation has dropped sharply. For this reason, the ongoing intensive vaccination work needs to be further accelerated, and the’boosted vaccination’ should be regarded as the standard for completing the vaccination. I hope that everyone will actively participate in the boosted vaccination with the upcoming schedule.
South Korea launched the new coronavirus vaccination work nationwide on February 26 this year. South Korea’s vaccination rate is currently among the highest in the world. According to Oxford University’s “Our World In Data”, as of November 22, 2021, 81.6% of South Korea’s residents have received one shot of the vaccine, 78.2% Of residents completed the vaccination, and another 3.5% received additional booster shots.
With the increase in the proportion of severe cases, various parts of Korea are also facing the problem of overwhelming medical resources. Jin Fuqian hopes that patients with mild illness can be treated at home. He said: “The top priority is to restore the medical response capacity in the capital area such as the beds for critically ill patients. To this end, vigorously promote’home treatment’ is the current issue. Please further improve the home treatment support program”, “if mild or asymptomatic patients are Going to the hospital to occupy a bed, those patients who really need intensive treatment can’t even enter the hospital, which puts their lives at risk.”
South Korea began to gradually lift epidemic prevention restrictions and resume daily life in three phases on November 1. The first phase lasts for 6 weeks, including a 4-week implementation period and a 2-week evaluation period. During this period, with the exception of high-risk entertainment facilities such as nightclubs, the business hours of most public gathering places such as restaurants and cafes will no longer be restricted. The size of the metropolitan area will be relaxed to 12 people.
South Korea originally planned to enter the second phase of “unblocking” in mid-December to further relax epidemic prevention measures. However, as the epidemic situation continues to worsen in the past few days, the epidemic prevention department said on the 23rd that if the epidemic situation continues to worsen, the government will consider adopting a number of measures such as emergency plans to increase epidemic prevention efforts.
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