South Korea has said patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms will have to treat themselves, aiming to free up medical resources for more serious cases
South Korea has largely been a COVID-19 mitigation success story, thanks to aggressive testing and tracing, social distancing and mask wearing.
But as the highly infectious but less deadly Omicron variant began spreading, the government this month started to shift its strategy away from testing and tracing and towards self-monitoring, diagnosis and at-home treatment.From Thursday, authorities will only provide care to COVID-19 patients aged 60 and older or with underlying conditions, while others monitor themselves and seek medical help from designated clinics if their conditions worsen.
Medical kits including an oxygen saturation measurement device, a thermometer and a fever remedy - previously available to all patients who treat themselves at home - would now be distributed only to priority groups.Officials have estimated around 13.5% of new cases would be classified as high risk groups.
South Korea's daily number of new cases hit another daily record of 54,122 for Wednesday, bringing its total infections to 1,185,361 among its 52 million people, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.The daily count has surged more than two-fold in less than a week, and could reach some 170,000 cases later this month with up to 1 million in home treatment, the KDCA has said.
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