COMMUNITY INFECTIONS CONTINUE

[Anchor Lead]

Korea has seen new COVID-19 cases in the four-digit range for nearly 50 days now, with Tuesday's tally back up to the 1,500 range. There are concerns about widespread infections in communities as the number of untraceable infections and deaths has spiked recently. Experts point out that new measures are needed as epidemiological investigations seem to have reached the limit.

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​Last week’s daily average of new cases stood at 1,715, showing a modest fall from the previous week. In contrast, new cases in the capital region grew by 2.2%. The government projected that four-digit daily caseloads will likely continue until next month.

[Soundbite] Jeong Eun-kyeong(KDCA Director) : "It’s not easy to project the course of the fourth wave, but it is not likely to reach the peak and dissipate quickly like in the previous waves."

Patients in serious or critical conditions have remained above 300 for three weeks. There was also a spike in deaths. Twenty-one people had died in the first week of August, but that number exceeded 50 last week. However, the fatality rate since May fell to 0.33%

[Soundbite] Bae Kyung-taek(Central Disease Control HQs) : "The fatality rate has been decreasing thanks to vaccinations, but an increasing number of new cases has pushed up the overall number of deaths and critical patients."

The percentage of cases being contact-traced has grown steadily in the past month. Authorities report that they are having difficulties finding infection routes for three out of ten cases. This points to epidemiological investigation capacity reaching its limit. There are mixed opinions among experts on how to resolve the situation.

[Soundbite] Choi Won-suk(Dept. of Infectious Diseases, Korea Univ. Ansan Hospital) : "Korea is trying to control the infection size with epidemiological investigation. I think the efforts to lower the risk of transmission should be maintained."

[Soundbite] Kim Woo-joo(Dept. of Infectious Diseases, Korea Univ. Guro Hospital) : "It is inefficient to control the disease by thoroughly investigating contacts at this point. There’s much to do with limited resources, so we need strategies to efficiently distribute manpower and resources."

An increase in seriously ill patients has pushed up the ICU bed occupancy rate to nearly 70%. Although no hospital beds are available in Daejeon and Sejong, the government claims there is no problem as hospital admittance is dealt by region and beds in non-ICU wards are made available.