S. Korea detects its first two cases of Delta Plus COVID-19 variant

SEOUL- South Korea has detected its first two cases of the new Delta Plus COVID-19 variant, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Tuesday, as the country battles with its fourth wave of infections nationwide.

The Delta Plus variant is a sub-lineage of the Delta variant first identified in India, and has acquired the spike protein mutation called K417N, which is also found in the Beta variant first identified in South Africa.

Reports of Delta Plus cases have been few so far, and a handful of countries, including Britain, Portugal and India, have reported some cases.

"The first case (in South Korea) was identified in a man in 40s who has no recent travel records," the KDCA told Reuters in a text message.

Test results in people who have been in contact with the man showed that a family member of his tested positive, but the KDCA did not confirm the patient was infected with Delta Plus.

"The second case was found in an overseas traveler," KDCA said.

Health authorities have said several major vaccines work against the highly contagious Delta variant, which has already become dominant in many countries, but have raised concern new strains may evade some vaccines.

Some scientists have said the Delta Plus variant may be even more transmissible. Studies are ongoing in India and globally to test the effectiveness of vaccines against this mutation.

South Korea reported 1,202 new COVID-19 cases for Monday, raising the total to 202,203 infections, with 2,104 deaths.

The country on Tuesday said it has given 20 million people, or 39% of its population, at least one dose of a vaccine, while 14.1% have been fully vaccinated.

South Korea aims to immunize at least 36 million people by September. 

-reuters-

South Koreans no longer need masks outdoors if vaccinated vs COVID-19

SEOUL - South Korea on Wednesday said masks will no longer be required outdoors from July for those vaccinated with at least one COVID-19 shot.

The move is a bid to encourage older residents to get vaccinated as South Korea aims to immunize at least 70% of its 52 million people by September, from just 7% now.

People given at least one dose also will be allowed to gather in larger numbers starting June, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a coronavirus response meeting on Wednesday.

He said all quarantine measures would be adjusted once more than 70% of residents had received their first dose.

South Korea will begin vaccinating the general public aged between 65 and 74 from Thursday in over 12,000 clinics.

South Korea reported 707 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the total tally to 137,682 infections, with 1,940 deaths.

(Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Stephen Coates)

-reuters-

South Korea reports surge in coronavirus cases, more restrictions expected

SEOUL - South Korea reported 700 new coronavirus cases, its highest daily figure since early January, and the Prime Minister reiterated warnings on Thursday that new social distancing rules would likely be needed.

Wednesday's tally compares with an average of 477 cases last week, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and will fuel fears that the country may be facing a fourth wave of infections.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting a new wave of infections could disrupt South Korea's vaccination programme which has been suffering delays as the international vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX struggles to provide promised doses on time.

South Korea also said on Wednesday it will temporarily suspend providing AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to people below 60 as it undergoes reviews in Europe.

It also approved a Johnson & Johnson shot in a bid to speed up its inoculation rollout.

Officials have said that a new round of restrictions are likely to be announced as soon as Friday. South Korea currently limits private gatherings of more than four people.

South Korea has to date reported 107,598 infections in total, with 1,758 deaths.

-reuters-

S.Korea reports record daily coronavirus deaths, raids

SEOUL - South Korea recorded its highest daily death toll from the coronavirus, health authorities said on Monday, as a surge in infections strains the health system and prompted police raids on venues suspected of violating social distancing rules.

As of midnight Sunday, there were 24 additional deaths, bringing the country's total to 698, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.

There were a further 926 coronavirus cases, down from a record high 1,097 the day before.

The recent surge in cases has confounded efforts to contain it and the country is running short of hospital beds, prompting debate over whether the government should impose stricter social distancing measures.

As of Sunday, there were just four intensive care unit beds remaining in the greater Seoul area, according to health officials.

The government has ordered private hospitals to free up more than 300 beds to be used for coronavirus patients, and has allocated $4.5 million to compensate the facilities.

Health officials have said imposing the nation's highest level of social distancing restrictions would only be a final resort.

Seoul City is considering going further than the national rules to ban gatherings of more than five people, starting the day before the Christmas holiday, Yonhap news agency reported.

On Friday, Seoul police and health investigators staged late-night crackdowns on 60 businesses including bars and karaoke clubs suspected of flouting current rules, the city said in a statement on Monday.

Thirty five people, including business owners and customers, were criminally charged, the statement said.

-reuters-

S.Korea's new coronavirus infections at second highest in new wave

SEOUL — South Korea reported 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as it battles a third wave of infections that is threatening to overwhelm its medical system.

The daily tally was the second-highest since the start of the pandemic, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). New cases have been consistently around 600 over the past week.

Tougher social distancing rules took effect on Tuesday, including curfews on restaurants and most other businesses.

The government has also introduced a new testing method to cater to surging demand, and eased rules to release some recovered patients faster to free up hospital beds.

"Testing is very critical to cutting the chained transmission," health official Yoon Tae-ho told a briefing.

Many of the cases had been found in young people who had been highly mobile, making it more difficult to trace infections, he said.

The government has signed deals with four global drug makers as part of a program to procure COVID-19 vaccines for 44 million people.

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday urged the authorities to continue to make efforts in securing additional vaccines, taking the people's safety and lives as the top priority even if that adds financial constraints.

"The vaccines we've secured for 44 million are sufficient to bring herd immunity to our people. But it is too early to be at ease, considering that the vaccines have been developed very urgently and there could be an unexpected situation," Moon told an emergency meeting.

He also called for drawing up an early inoculation plan so that vaccination will begin as soon as the shipments arrive.

The health ministry had said shipments would begin no later than March, and vaccinations may start in the first half of next year depending on factors such as observations in other countries about their safety, the spread of COVID-19 and public demand.

South Korea's total infections stand at 39,432, with 556 deaths.

The U.S. military command in South Korea apologized after photos showed people without masks dancing close together at entertainment spots on two American bases in the country.

The recent events "displayed poor judgment and actions inconsistent" with the command's tenets and virus-prevention measures, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said in a statement.

Two venues were closed on the bases and the command said it would follow the South Korean government's social distancing rules as well as its own guidelines. 

-reuters-

S.Korea's Moon orders more testing as coronavirus cases surge

SEOUL - South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on Monday for expanded coronavirus testing and more thorough tracing as the country struggled to control its latest and largest wave of infections.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 615 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Sunday, capping a month of triple-digit daily increases that have led to 8,311 confirmed patients in quarantine, the most ever.

Moon ordered the government to mobilize every available resource to track infections, and to expand testing by deploying the military and more people from the public service, presidential Blue House spokesman Chung Man-ho told a briefing.

Moon said testing sites should operate longer hours to allow people working to get tested at their convenience and more drive-through testing facilities should be set up, Chung said.

The positive rate for the latest batch of tests was about 4.2%, compared to the year's average of 1.2%, according to the KDCA.

On Sunday, authorities said they will impose heightened social distancing rules for the capital Seoul and surrounding areas that will last until at least the end of the month.

South Korea avoided lockdowns but used an intensive system of tracing, testing and quarantining to tamp down two earlier waves of infection.

With this third wave, however, the government has faced increasing criticism as cases continue to rise despite measures such as mask mandates, curfews for restaurants and other businesses, and restricted public transportation.

Monday's total was down slightly from Sunday, when the agency reported 631 new cases, the largest daily tally since a peak in February and early March.

In total, South Korea has reported 38,161 cases, with 549 deaths.

Health authorities have said that if the current trend of cases continues, the hospital system could become overloaded. 

-reuters-

South Korea returns largely to normal as outbreak controlled

SEOUL - South Korea returned largely to normal Wednesday as workers went back to offices, and museums and libraries reopened under eased social distancing rules after new coronavirus cases dropped to a trickle.

The South endured one of the worst early outbreaks of the disease outside China and while it never imposed a compulsory lockdown, strict social distancing had been widely observed since March.

Employees were urged to work from home where possible while the new school term was postponed from its March start.

Scores of events -- from K-pop concerts to sports seasons -- were delayed or cancelled, while museums and galleries were closed and religious services suspended. 

But the South appears to have brought its outbreak under control thanks to an extensive "trace, test and treat" program that has drawn widespread praise.

In a population of 51 million, its death toll is little more than 250, and new cases have slowed to just a handful -- 13 in the past three days, all of them arriving international passengers. More than 90 of the South's imported cases are returning citizens.

At least 100 people visited the National Museum of Korea in Seoul on Wednesday morning, and the first visitors of the day -- a married couple -- were given a bouquet of flowers by staff.

"Many of our colleagues also came back to work today, so we are very excited about the reopening, we are very happy," museum spokeswoman Lee Hyun-ju told AFP.

Some workers were bittersweet about going back to the office.

"I wanted to go home as soon as I sat down at my desk in the office today. But there is also this weird sense of stability," wrote one Twitter poster. 

Another tweeted: "I feel like my holidays are now over."

The South reported two new infections on Wednesday, taking the total to 10,806, the Korea Centers for Disease Control said.

Some professional sports, including baseball and soccer, are starting their new seasons this week after being postponed over virus fears, although the matches will be played behind closed doors.

Schools are to reopen in stages starting from May 13.

Under what Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun referred to as "everyday life quarantine", South Koreans are still encouraged to wear face masks and wash their hands frequently, among other recommendations.

Agence France-Presse

Germany bets on S. Korean model in virus fightback

BERLIN - In the race against the coronavirus, Germany is betting on widespread testing and quarantining to break the infection chain, a strategy borrowed from South Korea whose success in slowing the outbreak has become the envy of the world.

Germany is already carrying out more coronavirus tests than any other European country at a rate of 300,000 to 500,000 a week, according to officials.

But Chancellor Angela Merkel's government aims to ramp that up to at least 200,000 tests a day, according to an interior ministry document seen by several German media outlets.

The goal would be to test all those who suspect they have caught the virus, as well as the entire circle of people who have come into contact with a confirmed case.

Current testing criteria are focused on those who are sick with COVID-19 symptoms and have had contact with a confirmed case. 

The idea, according to the document, is to move from tests "that confirm the situation" to tests that "get ahead of it".

A crucial weapon in the battle would be the use of smartphone location data to trace a patient's recent movements, to more accurately track down and isolate potentially infected people.

CELL-PHONE TRACKING

While government officials and epidemiologists have come out in favor of cell-phone tracking, it remains a controversial idea in privacy-minded Germany, a nation haunted by the surveillance of the Nazi era and the communist-era Stasi secret police.

Germany's proposed plans echo the "trace, test and treat" strategy that appears to have helped South Korea bring its outbreak under control. It has included mass screening for potential cases and heavy use of technology to monitor patients.

Although Germany and South Korea are two very different countries, the Asian nation's virus strategy "can be an example", the head of Germany's Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for disease control told the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily.

"A key point is tracing cell phone data," Lothar Wieler said.

STORM BREWING

With a total of 389 deaths out of more than 52,000 cases, Germany has a mortality rate of just 0.7 percent -- compared with around 10 percent in hardest-hit Italy and eight percent in Spain.

But German Health Minister Jens Spahn has warned that the country could face "a storm" of new cases in the weeks ahead.

The RKI's Wieler warned that the dramatic scenes at Italian hospitals at breaking point could happen in Germany as well.

"We can't rule out that we will have more patients than ventilators here too," he said.

With 25,000 intensive care beds equipped with ventilators, Germany is in a better position than many countries to deal with an influx of patients in respiratory distress. 

But years of underfunding have left the country's healthcare system woefully understaffed.

"In recent months, some intensive care beds have had to be put out of action because of a lack of staff," said Reinhard Busse, a specialist in health economics at the Technical University of Berlin.

Germany currently has some 17,000 unfilled vacancies in nursing care.

As a result, many hospitals have resorted to drafting in retired health professionals or student medics to help with the expected coronavirus onslaught, including at Berlin's renowned Charite university hospital.

POLISH WORKERS

"Even before the coronavirus crisis, operations had to be cancelled because of a lack of staff," Uwe Luebking, head of labor market policies at the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, told AFP.

And when there is personnel on hand, nurses can spend up to four hours a day doing paperwork as Germany continues to lag behind other nations in digitalizing administrative tasks, experts say.

To make matters worse, confinement measures and border checks brought in to stem the virus spread have made it harder for foreign workers to travel to their German workplaces, with healthcare institutions on the frontier with Poland particularly affected. 

Critics have also argued that the German health system, which pays hospitals a fixed price per surgery, has led many hospitals to focus on the more lucrative practice of offering scheduled surgeries like hip or knee replacements, at the expense of strengthening their emergency care facilities.

Although Spahn has urged the directors of some 2,000 hospitals and clinics to cancel all non-urgent surgeries, several are resisting the call, according to Der Spiegel weekly.

Agence France-Presse