Nation likely to extend toughest distancing rules, again

Korea will likely extend – yet again -- the most rigid virus restrictions of the Level 4 social distancing scheme in the greater Seoul area as daily cases resurged to more than 2,100 cases on Thursday.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed 2,152 new virus cases, including 2,114 local infections, raising the total caseload to 230,808. It is the second time since the Covid-19 outbreak that the daily number of confirmed cases exceeded 2,000. It is the first time in eight days after the nation recorded 2,222 cases on Aug. 11.

The nation also reported 13 more people died from the virus, raising the death toll to 2,191 with a fatality rate of 0.95 percent.

Although the fatality rate dropped after the country started its vaccination program, the death toll has recently increased. The weekly death toll from Covid-19 has been steadily rising, from 27 deaths on July 25-31 to 18 on Aug. 1-6 and deaths on August 7-13.

Health officials expect the figure will exceed 40 this week as 30 people have died over the past four days.

Despite the increase in fatalities, the government stressed that although the number of deaths is increasing, the absolute number is small compared to the third viral wave.

"At the time of the third viral wave, the weekly death toll was around 150 to 160 compared with the daily confirmed cases of around 1,000," Ministry of Health and Welfare Spokesperson Son Young-rae said. "While the daily tally during the current epidemic has more than doubled, the number of deaths this week will barely exceed the 30s."

To contain the pandemic, the government will likely decide on Friday to maintain the strongest Level 4 distancing measures for another two weeks.

If the government plans to extend the measure, the greater Seoul area will likely be placed under the strongest curbs until the Chuseok holiday in mid-September.

"The government plans to explain the distancing scheme adjustment on Friday after the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters daily meeting," Son said. "With the Delta variant becoming a dominant variant in Korea, the nation will have to minimize its prevalence during the holiday season."

Son stressed that social distancing and quarantine measures work in a complex way, and the government is working on quickly finding and controlling confirmed cases by expanding diagnostic tests and epidemiological investigations.

The government also said it would unveil the delivery volume of Moderna vaccines and the timeframe on Sunday or Monday.

Due to recent supply disruption, Korea has been struggling to keep up its vaccine rollout as Moderna notified the government that it would supply less than half of the 8.5 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine planned for August.

The supply setbacks have raised doubts over the government's plan to administer at least the first shot to 70 percent of the population by September and to achieve herd immunity in November.

However, health officials recently reiterated that the government would have few problems reaching the goal.

The government is addressing the shortage in supply by expanding the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was unavailable for those under the age of 50, to those over 30 to increase the speed of the first vaccination in the face of disruptions in the supply of Moderna's vaccines.

Korea has vaccinated 24,306,127 people – 10,745,847 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, 10,733,859 with Pfizer's vaccine, 1,129,783 with Janssen's vaccine, 1,696,638 with Moderna's vaccine – with the first shot of the vaccine up 518,990 from the previous day.

The figure accounts for 47.3 percent of the country's population.