South Korea sees highest daily COVID-19 tally of 13,012 cases on Wednesday
오미크론 확산 가속…26일 신규확진 13,012명 Right... Soa... thank you... for the global tallies. As mentioned earlier... Korea has NOTED... an ALL-TIME-HIGH... with regard to... its DAILY TALLY... AND... for more... on the local COVID-19 situation... Shin YE-EUN ... is... here... in the studio. Ye-eun ... welcome. Great to be here Sunny. So... pundits are predicting... a FURTHER... frightening surge... in daily COVID-19 infections... in the near future? With health authorities confirming... that Omicron has become Korea's dominant strain,... experts are forecasting a "doubling phenomenon" to occur,... where the country witnesses... an exponential growth in cases... in a very short period of time. Over the past few days,... we've seen cluster infections break out nationwide,... and a number of regions reporting record-high tallies. Chungcheongbuk-do Province for example,... saw its number of new infections double... to 2-hundred 47 in the span of 24 hours. The city of Incheon meanwhile... reported 8-hundred 79 new cases,... its highest ever yet. Many fear... that Wednesday's jump in COVID-19 figures... may be signaling a new wave of infections. Because Omicron is known... to be twice more contagious than Delta,... experts say our daily figures could reach 30 to 40 thousand... in the coming days. Amid the looming threat... of the Omicron wave,... Korea's Prime Minister spoke of changes to virus prevention measures. "We shouldn't be complacent, but we don't need to be overly anxious about this situation. The government has been preparing in advance for Omicron by administering booster shots and antiviral pills to more of the senior population. Now, we will prioritize bringing down the number of critically-ill patients and deaths down, and give out exact information as to what Omicron entails and how we can tackle it." And it's not just the Prime Minister who is determined... to tackle this crisis head-on. President Moon Jae-in... is holding an emergency meeting at the Blue House this afternoon,... which started at 2 PM... here in Korea. A host of issues are likely being discussed,... ranging from the country's response to the Omicron variant,... especially ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday... to ways of making efficient use... of our limited medical resources. This is President Moon's first in-person meeting... following his return from... the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. YE-EUN... let's also... take... this moment... to REMIND... ourselves... about... the new OMICRON RESPONSE STRATEGY... starting... on this Wednesday. Some of the key changes include... making PCR tests exclusive... for high-risk individuals and those with a suspected case of COVID-19. Everyone else... will be given rapid antigen test kits instead. These measures will first be introduced... in four regions hit hardest by Omicron,... like Jeollanam-do Province... and the city of Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi-do Province,... before being expanded nationwide. Authorities have also made changes... to the number of days in self-isolation for COVID-19 patients... based on their vaccination status. For those who have been fully vaccinated,... the quarantine period has been reduced from 10 days to 7. Those who haven't been fully vaccinated... must stay in self-isolation for 10 days. To be considered fully vaccinated,...14 days must have passed... after receiving a second dose or a booster. There's one important caveat however. For those who got two shots,... no more than 90 days must have passed... since their last jab... to be eligible for the shorter isolation period. And... on the treatment front... authorities are expanding... their distribution... of Pfizer's anti-viral pills? That's right Sunny. As of now,... Korea has only been administering anti-viral pills to seniors aged 60 and up... after receiving the first batch of Paxlovid... some two weeks ago. But on Tuesday,... Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said authorities are considering a lower age limit... to include those in their fifties. The Prime Minister said the 200 courses of Paxlovid... that have been used up to now... have proved to be quite effective. He said one thing was sure,... that none of the patients who took the medication... developed any severe illnesses. All right Ye-eun... thank you... for now... BUT... do stay... for more talks. #COVID19 #Omicron #infection 📣 Arirang News(Facebook) : / arirangtvnews 📣 Arirang News(Twitter) : / arirangtvnews 📣 News Center(YouTube) : / newscenter_arirangtv 2022-01-26, 14:00 (KST)
