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As the COVID-19 resurgence returned to a decreasing trend and the holiday season began, the number of new confirmed cases on Chuseok reached 40,000.
There are concerns regarding an increase in the number of confirmed cases following the holidays, when there is no distance and the travel volume increases, but experts predicted that there would be no significant increase this Chuseok.
Reporter Ki Jeong-hoon reports.
[기자]
On Chuseok, there were 42,000 new cases of COVID-19.
26,000 fewer than the previous day, the lowest in eight weeks as of Saturday.
However, the number of patients with severe gastritis increased by 21 from the previous day.
Last Thursday, it was said that the number dropped to the 400 level in 16 days, but it is once more at the 500 level for two days in a row.
The death toll continues to be a considerable number at 48, including one under the age of 9.
The quarantine authorities showed their confidence in the first holiday quarantine without social distancing, but did not deny that the amount of movement is a variable.
[백경란 / 질병관리청장(8일 브리핑) : 재유행 관리 경험은 향후 대응에 근거와 도움이 될 것이라 생각합니다. 그렇지만 추석 명절을 맞이해 이동과 모임이 잦아지면 재확산 가능성을 배제할 수 없습니다.]
After the Chuseok holiday last year, before the actual Omicron mutation appeared, the number of confirmed cases from 1 to 2,000 a day exceeded 3,000 for the first time.
But this year, experts say, things are a little different.
This is because the re-infections led by detailed mutations are on a marked decline, and as the epidemics repeat, the people’s immunity is also maintained at a high level.
[신상엽 / KMI 상임연구위원 : 대규모의 집단 발생은 추석 연휴 전후로 나타나기 어렵지만, 문제는 뭐냐 하면 상대적으로 안전한 곳에 있었던 비수도권 지역에 고위험군 어르신들이 새롭게 수도권에 있는 위험자들과 노출될 가능성이 있다라는 거죠.]
Therefore, we should focus on who is confirmed rather than how much the number of patients increases following the holidays.
Moreover, despite the recent decline in new cases, the proportion of confirmed patients over the age of 60 is increasing.
The government is not letting go of the reins in the quarantine of high-risk groups, such as maintaining a ban on visiting nursing hospitals and facilities.
The quarantine authorities urged the elderly and people with underlying diseases to actively participate in the observance of quarantine rules that protect and consider high-risk groups, such as refraining from participating in large-scale family gatherings even at home.
This is YTN Ki Jeong-hoon.
YTN Ki Jeong-hoon (prodi@ytn.co.kr)
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