Covid-19 summer wave 'process' to reach endemic stage: South Korea

The current wave of Covid-19 in South Korea is manageable and a seasonal "process" toward reaching the endemic stage, said the chief of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on Wednesday, assuring people that health authorities can contain the virus without raising the alert level.

"Currently, it is not a crisis as seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it should be viewed as a process in which Covid-19 becomes endemic," KDCA Commissioner Jee Young-mee told reporters, Yonhap news agency reported.

Jee expected this year's summer wave to gradually subside when it passes its peak by the end of this month.

"The summer wave is predicted to rise until the end of August and then decline," Jee said.

Still, health authorities are focusing on treating Covid in high-risk patients, although the virus' fatality rate is similar to the seasonal flu.

"Since January 2020 through August of last year, the fatality rate of Covid-19 has been recorded at 0.1 percent. Last year, the rate was 0.05 percent, suggesting that the fatality rate of the omicron variants is comparable to that of the seasonal flu," Jee said.

Jee said the government will maintain a stable supply of Covid treatments and test kits and will launch inoculation programs with vaccines effective against other recent variants, such as JN.1, in October.

The KDCA added that it believes vaccines effective against the JN.1 variant will also work against KP.3, given their similar characteristics.

The KDCA said that 177,000 doses of Covid treatments will be available at local pharmacies starting Monday next week, with the treatments expected to be provided to high-risk groups through October.

"With the treatments secured ahead of schedule, they are expected to play a key role in quickly stabilizing the situation," Jee said.

The agency noted that 10 local manufacturers have produced and shipped 3.25 million Covid test kits through Friday this month, a significant increase from the 116,000 units recorded in all of July.

The number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients at 220 surveyed medical institutions, meanwhile, reached 1,366 during the second week of August, a sharp rise from the 880 reported the previous week.