Quarantine rules to be eased amid record-high COVID-19 deaths

A medical worker administers a COVID-19 test on a visitor at a screening center near Seoul Station, Sunday. Yonhap

Korea's COVID Resilience Ranking drops to 21st out of 53 nations

By Lee Hyo-jin

The government has decided to ease self-isolation and testing rules for unvaccinated people who have come in close contact with COVID-19 patients. But this latest move has raised concerns of fueling virus transmission among asymptomatic patients.

Despite the soaring number of COVID-19 cases, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced Friday it will lift mandatory self-isolation rules for close contacts and cohabiting family members of COVID-19 patients, regardless of their vaccination status, starting March 1.

Currently, those who are not fully vaccinated must quarantine for a week after coming into close contact with a patient. The health ministry defines close contact as "living in the same home or having talked without wearing a face mask for 15 minutes or longer."

But under the new measures, these people will now be subject to what the government calls "passive monitoring." They will be allowed to carry on with their daily lives other than reporting to the public health authorities if they experience COVID-19-like symptoms.

In addition, cohabiting family members of virus carriers are no longer obliged to undergo PCR tests.

Instead, they are "recommended" to undergo a PCR test within three days after the patient tests positive, and to conduct a rapid antigen test on the seventh day, or the last day of the self-isolation period of their infected family member.

In other words, individuals who have come into close contact with a COVID-19 patient or cohabiting family of a patient will now be able to go to work or school, without any mandatory precautionary measures.

The health ministry explained that the easing of quarantine rules is aimed at alleviating the workload of overburdened public officials and focusing on providing the available medical resources to confirmed COVID-19 patients.

People wait in line to receive a COVID-19 test at testing center near Seoul Station, Sunday. Yonhap

But medical experts voiced worries that this decision may put members of high-risk groups at risk.

"Considering that about 30 to 40 percent of patients infect their family members, the most vulnerable group, such as the elderly and young children at home, may be at risk under the drastically eased quarantine measures," said Chon Eun-mi, a professor of respiratory diseases at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital.

"Instead of lifting the quarantine measures (for cohabiting families) all at once, some mandatory measures, such as making them conduct rapid antigen tests at least twice during the patient's self-isolation period, should be left in place," she said.

The number of COVID-19 deaths rose to a record high of 112 on Friday, as the country continues to grapple with hundreds of thousands of new infections added each day.

The country saw 163,566 new infections for Saturday, with 643 patients in critical condition and 49 deaths.

Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg's COVID-19 Resilience Ranking released on Feb. 24, Korea ranked 21th in the list of 53 countries, a significant drop from 9th in January.

Although Korea performed relatively well in handling the pandemic in terms of the fatality rate and infection rate per 100,000 people, the country earned poor scores in quality of life and the economy's shift to normalcy.

The United Arab Emirates remained in 1st place, handling the pandemic with the least social and economic disruption, followed by Ireland and Saudi Arabia.

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