South Korea’s Covid patient count expected to hit 350,000 next week
Seoul, Aug 19: The number of Covid-19 patients is expected to reach 350,000 next week, matching the peak seen in last year’s summer wave, a senior health ministry official said on Monday.
Hong Jung-ik, director-general in charge of infectious disease policy at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, told a radio interview that health authorities have no plans to raise the alert level for Covid as long as there are enough treatments and testing kits supplied, Yonhap news agency reported.
“Although the current number of patients is about half of the number recorded in August last year, judging by the trends of the summer season in the past two years, the weekly figure may reach 350,000 by the end of this month, similar to last year’s peak,” Hong said.
Health officials expect the current wave of Covid to peak at the end of this month.
Hong said the government is distributing Covid treatments and added that there will be enough of the drug available in local pharmacies by the end of this month.
Last week, the presidential office said the country would supply treatments for 260,000 Covid patients.
Hong said the government would supply more than 5 million test kits by the end of this month.
On Sunday, the country’s disease control agency said the level of the Covid virus in wastewater had nearly doubled in just one week.
The Korea Wastewater Monitoring Programme, run by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), said the average concentration of the virus in local sewage treatment plants reached 47,640 per millilitre during the second week of August, Yonhap reported.
This is a sharp rise from 24,602 per milliliter recorded the previous week.
The data is based on Covid virus levels in water treated by 84 wastewater plants nationwide.
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