South Korea yesterday extended COVID-19 social distancing rules for an additional two weeks, including a 9pm curfew for restaurants and a six-person limit on private gatherings, as infections of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 soar.
The restrictions were due to end tomorrow, but South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said that the extension was necessary to slow the spread of Omicron amid fears that the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended on Wednesday, might have fueled infections.
“Slowing the pace of the Omicron’s spread, which is heading to its peak day after day, is a priority in this difficult circumstance,” he said at a televised government response meeting.
Photo: EPA-EFE
New daily cases have tripled over the past two weeks, but the number of deaths and serious infections have remained relatively low in the highly vaccinated country.
South Korea reported a record daily increase of 27,443 new COVID-19 cases, with 24 new deaths, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
Nearly 86 percent of South Korea’s 52 million population are fully vaccinated, and 53.8 percent have received booster shots.
To handle the surge in cases, the government has rolled out a new testing program under which only priority groups take polymerase chain reaction tests, while others can take a rapid antigen test at a clinic for faster initial diagnosis.
The agency also reduced the mandatory quarantine time for vaccinated people who test positive from 10 days to one week, and allowed more people with few or no symptoms to be treated at home.
Overall, South Korea has reported 934,656 COVID-19 cases, and 6,836 deaths since the pandemic began.
In Japan, serious COVID-19 cases exceeded 1,000 for the first time in four months, data showed yesterday, as the Omicron variant fueled record infections, burdening the medical system.
Seriously ill patients climbed by 131 to 1,042 cases from the day before, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said, the highest since September last year when the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 drove a fifth wave of cases.
Japan recorded 96,748 new cases on Thursday.
Most regions are under infection control measures in an attempt to blunt a spread of Omicron that has exploded among a population where less than 5 percent have received booster shots.
The government is considering a two-week extension of the curbs in 13 regions, including its capital, Tokyo, the Fuji News Network said on Thursday.
Tokyo raised its COVID-19 alert to the highest level on Thursday, and also laid out revised criteria for requesting a full state of emergency.
Tokyo is to request an emergency declaration if either the occupancy rate of hospital beds for serious patients or the rate of patients needing oxygen reaches 30 to 40 percent, and the seven-day average of new cases reaches 24,000.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
RSS