Seoul, Aug 21 (IANS): Health authorities in South Korea aim to focus on treating Covid-19 in high-risk patients as this year's summer wave is expected to peak by the end of this month, the chief of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Wednesday.
KDCA Commissioner Jee Young-mee told reporters that she expects the current wave to subside when it passes its peak, Yonhap news agency reported.
"The summer wave is predicted to rise until the end of August and then decline," Jee said.
Jee said Covid's fatality rate is similar to seasonal flu, but there is a need to protect old people.
"Since January 2020 through August of last year, the fatality rate of Covid has been recorded at 0.1 per cent. Last year, the rate was 0.05 per cent, suggesting that the fatality rate of the omicron variants is comparable to that of the seasonal flu," Jee said.
Jee said the government will maintain a stable supply of Covid treatments and test kits and will launch inoculation programs with vaccines effective against other recent variants, such as JN.1, in October.
The KDCA added that it believes vaccines effective against the JN.1 variant will also work against KP.3, given their similar characteristics.
Meanwhile, the health authorities in the country on Tuesday said they have asked people with mpox symptoms who arrived from eight African nations -- Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Kenya, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- to report to officials.
South Korea has also redesignated mpox as an infectious disease subject to border screening, Yonhap said.
The move comes after the KDCA vowed last week to ramp up containment measures against the virus, following the World Health Organization's declaration of mpox outbreaks in Africa as a global health emergency.
Under the measure, arrivals who have visited from the eight countries will be required to report to officials if they show symptoms related to mpox, such as fever, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes
The KDCA will also deploy health officials to the arrival gates for direct flights from Ethiopia and implement supplementary monitoring measures, such as inspecting wastewater from the planes.
As of August 9, South Korea had reported 10 mpox cases this year, a decrease from 151 in 2023, according to the KDCA.