COVID-19 | South Korea's omicron deaths surge amid faltering response

South Korea reached another daily record in COVID-19 deaths on March 17 as health officials reported more than 6,21,000 new infections

South Korea reached another daily record in COVID-19 deaths on March 17 as health officials reported more than 6,21,000 new infections, underscoring a massive omicron surge that has been worse than feared and threatens to buckle an over-stretched hospital system.

The 429 deaths reported in the latest 24 hours were nearly 140 more than the previous one-day record set on Tuesday. Fatalities may further rise in coming weeks considering the intervals between infections, hospitalisations and deaths.

The 6,21,266 new coronavirus cases diagnosed by health workers were also a record daily jump, shattering Wednesday’s previous high of 4,00,624. That pushed the national caseload to over 8.2 million, with more than 7.4 million cases added since the start of February.

The outbreak has been significantly bigger than what had been forecast by government health authorities, who maintain that omicron is nearing its peak. Officials have tried to calm public fears amid concerns about a faltering pandemic response, saying that omicron is no more deadly than seasonal influenza for vaccinated people and less dangerous than the delta strain that hit the country hard in December and early January.

South Korea still has a much lower rate of COVID-19 deaths in relation to size of population than the United States or many European nations, which officials attribute to high vaccinations with more than 68% of the population having received booster shots.

However, some experts say health officials clearly underestimated how the greater scale of outbreak would strain worn-out hospital workers who had just wiggled out of the delta surge. They criticise the government for sending the wrong message to the public by easing social-distancing restrictions and effectively communicating that omicron is mild.

Transmissions were probably worsened by an intense Presidential campaign leading up to last week’s election, which also appeared to have reduced political capacity to maintain a stringent virus response. Lee Sang-won, a senior Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency official, said during a briefing that health authorities feel “apologetic” over the explosion of omicron cases that has been bigger than they expected. He said around 70,000 of the new cases reported on Thursday were infections that were mistakenly omitted from Wednesday’s tally, and that the real daily increase would be around 5,50,000.