Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-cheol is taking off his mask to announce the results of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters at the Seoul Government Complex in Jongno-gu on the 27th. After taking office, Minister Kwon began the first official Corona 19 briefing on this day. Newsis
Again, the government turned around at the threshold of the third stage of social distancing. The criteria for the number of new confirmed cases required for the 3rd stage upgrade have already been met, but it was decided to observe the effect of the special quarantine reinforcement measures during the year-end and New Year holidays for one more week. Experts in infectious diseases warn that, if this is the case, they may sooner or later draw an extreme card called’blockade’. However, the government is hesitant to upgrade every time because of economic damage.
After taking office as the Minister of Health and Welfare, Kwon Deok-cheol, who started a regular briefing for the first novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), said on the 27th, “How will the increase in patients change according to the effect of special quarantine measures during the year-end and New Year holidays?” Looking at the trend, it is necessary to adjust the distancing measures,” he said. “The 2.5-stage measures for the metropolitan area and the second-stage measures for the non-metropolitan area will be extended for 6 days until January 3 (when quarantine measures are terminated during the year-end and New Year).”
Experts, however, expressed concern that it would be impossible to shift to a decline in confirmed cases without raising the distance. “It will be difficult to maintain public awareness if we continue to step 2.5,” said Um Joong-sik, a professor of infectious medicine at Gachon University Gil Hospital. “The reason that the infectious reproduction index is not dropping significantly is because in the end, the amount of movement and contact between people does not decrease.” Pointed out. For quarantine, it is time for special measures to forcibly limit the amount of movement and contact.
According to the quarantine authorities, if the distance is raised to three stages, about 2,093,000 multi-use facilities nationwide will be restricted from operating. Of these, 452,000 are banned from gathering and should be closed at all. As such, the amount of movement and the possibility of contact of people using these facilities decreases.
On the 27th, a banner for rental inquiries was posted in the vacancy of some commercial buildings in Jongno 3-ga, Jongno-gu, Seoul. The party administration is reviewing the payment of the third disaster support fund of up to 3 million won, including direct rental support to small business owners and self-employed persons who have been affected by social distancing caused by the spread of Corona 19. News 1
The current Infectious Reproduction Index in the metropolitan area as announced by the government on that day is 1.07. This means that one person is spreading the coronavirus to 1.07 people. The quarantine authorities positively evaluated that the infectious material production index slightly decreased from 1.27 last week (December 13-19) to 1.07 this week (20-26), but the prediction is early. In the medical community, it is generally believed that the spread of the infectious reproductive index should drop below 1 to peak and return to the true phase.
There is also a lot of criticism that it is violating itself every time the government’s ambitious five-stage social distancing reform plan. Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious medicine at Daegu Guro Hospital, said, “When we need to raise the level, we don’t raise it, and we keep coming up with measures that are different from the standard, such as 2.5 step plus (+) alpha, and a special quarantine period stronger than step 3, etc.” The people are unreliable, and the distance is not working properly,” he criticized.
In fact, the 3rd step criterion was already met on the 16th. Step 3 is to be issued when △the average number of confirmed patients per day across the country is 800 to 1,000 or more, or △in step 2.5, the number of confirmed cases increases by the previous day. At that time, the average number of patients per day for a week (December 8-15) was 833, and the last week (21-27 days) was 999.
The government is in a position that the third stage of the’last resort’, which is actually a blockade measure, should be avoided as much as possible in consideration of the economic impact. However, paradoxically, experts warn that the delay in the third-level upgrade will eventually lead to a blockade. Professor Eom said, “If there are too many confirmed cases, it is not possible to control it just by distancing it,” he said. “Before the worst situation comes, the government has to raise three levels, but the government is still unable to decide.”
Song Okjin reporter [email protected]
Yunju Lee reporter [email protected]
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