South Korea reported more than 400,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, a record for countries starting to ease restrictions despite a wave of infections caused by omicron strains.
Health officials reported 400,741 cases on Wednesday, the highest number in the United States since the pandemic began two years ago.
Health authority Son Young-rae said at a press conference that this is the “biggest challenge” facing the country.
The government expected an increase in infections, Sohn thought the country was approaching the peak of the omicron wave.
“If we overcome this crisis, we will approach a return to normal,” he added.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), South Korea is the country that recorded the highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world last week, with 2,358,878 cases of infection in 7 days, and Vietnam with 1,795,380 cases.
The majority of the eligible South Korean population has been vaccinated, and despite the population infection level of 52 million people, the number of deaths from coronavirus remains low.
South Korea has relaxed social distancing rules due to pressure from the business sector, and many small businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy due to prolonged health restrictions.
South Korea maintains nighttime business curfew and maintains a 6-person limit for individual congregations.
On March 21, mandatory quarantine for vaccinated people arriving from abroad will be lifted.
Seoul abandoned the “conspiracy, testing, treatment” program, which was praised in February when a wave of omicron variant cases was at risk of flooding the health system.
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