S. Korea expects to see daily caseload on Monday hover near 100-thousand mark

오후 9시까지 전국서 9만3260명 확진…누적확진 200만명 넘어 We start with the COVID-19 situation in South Korea. The daily caseload continues to hover around the 100-thousand range. As a result, the number of people receiving treatment at home is climbing at a rapid pace. For more, our reporter Shin Ye-eun is in the studio. Good morning, Ye-eun. Good morning. How many new infections are we expecting to add today? Mok-yeon, we're expecting to see the daily figure reach the high 90-thousands. Because as of 9pm Sunday, we saw 93-thousand 2-hundred 60 new infections. Though this was a drop by some 7-thousand from a day ago...it was still roughly double the amount reported the same time last week. And following Sunday's additions, South Korea has now recorded more than 2 million infections, nationwide. The country added more than 1 million infections in the past two weeks. On February 6th, we saw the total COVID-19 tally surpass 1 million...for the first time. Given the surge...the number of people treating themselves at home is also rising fast. How many people are at home recovering right now? Well, as you mentioned we're seeing the number of people being treated at-home DOUBLE...JUST like we're seeing new Omicron infections double each week. As of Sunday, there was a total of 450-thousand 4-hundred 93 people receiving at home treatment...which was more than twice the amount reported a week ago. Compared to two weeks ago...this figure has gone up by roughly 4-fold. Because figures are doubling each week...many have raised concerns that medical infrastructure is unable keep up. Authorities tried to address this medical crunch by expanding the number of hospitals and clinics that provide phone counseling or providing remote prescriptions. As of February 10th, there were only 1-thousand 8-hundred 56 clinics. Authorities expanded this number to more than 6-thousand 50 in a week. But many have raised concerns that there still aren't enough medical staff on stand-by to help those who need to be treated at home. Especially, those who are in self-isolation without a caregiver in the same house. If you recall, in early February, health officials divided people infected with COVID-19 into two categories: the intensive management group and the regular management group. Those in the intensive management group are subject to constant monitoring and more intensive care because they are considered high-risk. They receive two daily health check ups from medical staff, who are always on stand-by. They also receive treatment kits, which include fever medication, thermometers, and self-test equipment. They may also be prescribed Paxlovid...the anti-viral COVID-19 pills. To fall under this category, you either have to be immunocompromised,... 50 and above with underlying conditions, or aged 60 and above. Most people are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and therefore fall under the regular management group. This group isn't provided with treatment kits... nor are they actively monitored like those in the intensive management group. It's only if their symptoms worsen... that this group can contact their local hospital or clinic to access remote healthcare services. Once they receive permission, they can visit an outpatient treatment center. But contacting local hospitals has been quite the headache for this group...because many have said the lines were always busy. So there's constant demand for more medical staff standing by for people at home that need care... as we're expecting to see the number of people with COVID-19 at home reach 1 million by early next month. How are authorities responding to this? Apart from asking more hospitals and clinics to provide remote health services to people at home....authorities are trying to supply more self-test kits and give out anti-viral pills to more of the population. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said they would provide 21 million COVID-19 self test kits to some 75-thousand stores nationwide...this week. This was up by 2 million from what was distributed last week. The total number of kits set to be distributed in the third and fourth week of February is 10 million more than what authorities had originally planned. Also, from this Monday, authorities will also expand the age group that can take Paxlovid... to those aged 40 and up...who have underlying conditions. Moving on to the vaccination front...authorities have added Novavax for use in the country. People aged 18 and up who haven't been vaccinated can make their Novavax shot reservations on Monday. Novavax is the first protein subunit vaccine to be manufactured in the country. ... #COVID19 #Coronavirus #SouthKorea 📣 Arirang News(Facebook) :   / arirangtvnews   📣 Arirang News(Twitter) :   / arirangtvnews   📣 News Center(YouTube) :    / newscenter_arirangtv   2022-02-21, 08:00 (KST)