Number of COVID-19 inpatients surges sixfold in four weeks in South Korea

The number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 has grown sharply in South Korea recently amid a virus resurgence in summertime nationwide, health authorities said on Friday. The number of people admitted to 220 hospitals nationwide for COVID-19 came to 861 in the first week of August, the highest level since early February, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Yonhap news agency reported.

The figure has grown rapidly from 148 in the second week of July to 226 in the third week and 475 the following week. The authorities have expected such an uptrend to continue through the end of this month. The latest wave is sparked by the KP.3 sub-variant of the fast-spreading omicron variant, which accounted for 45.5 percent of the total cases as of July.

Of the inpatients this month, 65.2 percent were those aged 65 and older, followed by 18.1 percent aged 50-64. Despite the surge in the number of patients, more than 90 percent of them suffer mild symptoms and the country is able to handle the situation under the current medical system. However, the government decided to beef up monitoring of senior citizens and other high-risk groups and double up efforts to ensure stable supplies of medicine and test kits.

It will also resume the vaccination campaign in October, where high-risk groups will be administered vaccines for free. "The risk of respiratory infections rises in summer as indoor places are not fully ventilated and people-to-people contacts can grow during vacation. It is crucial to abide by basic hygiene rules," KDCA chief Jee Young-mee said.