KDCA Chief Calls COVID-19 Summer Wave 'Process' To Reach Endemic Stage

(Updates throughout with KDCA chief's remarks; changes headline)

SEOUL, Aug 21 (Bernama-Yonhap)  -- The current wave of COVID-19 is manageable and part of a seasonal 'process' toward reaching the endemic stage, the chief of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Wednesday, assuring the public that health authorities can contain the virus without raising the alert level, Yonhap news agency reported.

“Currently, it is not a crisis like during the COVID-19 pandemic, but should be viewed as a process toward COVID-19 becoming endemic,” KDCA Commissioner Jee Young-mee told reporters.

Jee expected this year’s summer wave to gradually subside after it peaks by the end of the 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-19 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 per cent. Last year, the rate was 0.05 per cent, 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-19 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-19 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 stabilising the situation,” Jee said.

The agency noted that 10 local manufacturers have produced and shipped 3.25 million COVID-19 test kits through Friday this month, a significant increase from the 116,000 units recorded in all of July.

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

--BERNAMA-YONHAP