S. Korea to report under 300,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday

오후 9시까지 전국서 27만1599명 확진...'10명 모임•자정까지 영업'으로 조정 We start with the COVID-19 situation in South Korea. The country is expected to see another drop in daily cases,... with fewer infections confirmed through 9 PM on Thursday. South Korea is set to announce revised social distancing measures in the coming hours. For more, our reporter Choi Min-jung is in the studio. Good morning, Min-jung. Good morning. Min-jung, let's start on the local front. How many cases are we expecting today? Mok-yeon, we are forecast to see another drop in the number of infections today. From midnight to 9 PM Thursday,... South Korea reported around 271-thousand cases. This is about 41-thousand cases fewer than a day ago,.. and around 121-thousand cases less than two weeks ago when the country hit its Omicron peak. So cases for today MAY be under the 300-thousand mark. South Korea has confirmed a total of 13 million cases since the outbreak of the pandemic. This means that one in four people in the country have been or are infected,... after just around 8-hundred days. Things are not looking as positive for severe cases,... as more than a thousand patients have been in critical condition for almost a month. On the revised social distancing measures. We hear there are only likely to be slight tweaks... That's right Mark. The pandemic recovery committee met yesterday afternoon,... to finalize updates for what could possibly be the country's final round of social distancing measures. Authorities seem set to expand social gathering caps to ten people,... from the current eight. And also extending business hours by an hour,... to midnight. The extended hours will apply to venues like restaurants, cafes, singing rooms, bars, as well as indoor sports facilities. The new measures are set to be implemented starting next Monday,.... and will last for two weeks. There have been talks on completely abolishing business hour restrictions,... but this option does not seem likely,.. as the KDCA chief said that the decline in cases may be slowed down by Stealth Omicron,.. possibly leading to a resurgence in severe case figures. But pundits cautiously say this could be the last round of social distancing measures for the country,.. given the downward trajectory of the Omicron wave. And starting today,.. restrictions on fully vaccinated inbound travelers have been completely lifted... tell us more. Right, starting today,.. all fully vaccinated travelers arriving in South Korea are exempt from quarantine. This means no matter where you come from,.. you will not have to isolate for seven days. The same rules had been in place from mid-March,... except for those arriving from Myanmar, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, or Pakistan. From April, authorities had initially put Myanmar, Ukraine, and Vietnam on the list of quarantine countries,.... but authorities have decided to get rid of it all together. So everyone who is fully vaccinated can enter the country regardless of where they came from. Being fully vaccinated means that fourteen days must have passed since the final vaccine shot,... but not more than 180 days. Those who have gotten booster shots are also recognized as being fully vaccinated. A growing number of people still having symptoms after their recovery. In light of this, authorities have launched research into the long-term effects of COVID-19... Right Mark. With one in five infected people experiencing long COVID,.. officials on Thursday announced they will launch an investigation into the long-term effects of COVID-19. Let's take a listen. "There is not enough research on the long-term effects of COVID-19 worldwide. There is a limit to treating patients or managing the virus situation with the existing studies. This is why we need more standardized and accurate data on lingering post COVID symptoms to tackle the pandemic more effectively." From current studies conducted by local health research institutes and medical facilities,... 20 to 79-percent of patients experienced fatigue, shortness of breath, and sleep and mood disorders,... after recovering from COVID-19. Around 19-percent have visited a medical facility for these reasons. However, current studies are only based on those who were severely ill, hospitalized, or had underlying health conditions. So to create more reliable data, authorities will be conducting studies on post-COVID symptoms on 1-thousand patients,.. including younger and healthy people,... and provide an in-depth analysis in the latter half of the year. Minjung thanks for your report as always. Thanks for having me. #COVID19 #Coronavirus #SouthKorea 📣 Arirang News(Facebook) :   / arirangtvnews   📣 Arirang News(Twitter) :   / arirangtvnews   📣 News Center(YouTube) :    / newscenter_arirangtv   2022-04-01, 08:00 (KST)