South Korea Surges To 170,000 COVID Cases In 24 Hours

 

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For the first 18 months of the pandemic, South Korea (pop 52 million), kept daily cases pretty much in the triple digits. In August of last year, with the relaxation of social distancing rules ( `Living with COVID' policy), the ROK began to see a steady rise in cases.

A little over a month ago (Jan 17th) South Korea was reporting about 4,000 COVID cases a day.  The record - set in the middle of December - was 7,800.  But with the arrival of Omicron, South Korea's daily cases have exploded, with 171,271 cases reported in the past 24 hours. 

While Omicron cases - on average - are less severe than Delta, with this much transmission hospitalizations and deaths (both lagging indicators), are rising. Yesterday South Korea reported 99 deaths, more than doubling over the past week. 

While health authorities in South Korea are hopeful this wave will peak next month, they are warning that the number of hospitalizations and deaths will continue to rise for several more weeks.

This wave, and the one in Hong Kong, are undoubtedly quite worrying for Chinese officials who fear Omicron will breach their Zero-COVID firewall.  

Both China and South Korea have similar vaccination rates, but China's Sinovac vaccine is likely less effective against Omicron than the mRNA vaccines (mostly Pfizer) used in the ROK. With a population 25 times larger than South Korea, and presumably less community immunity, China has a lot at stake keeping this virus at bay.