Korea Declares COVID Resurgence

Korea has officially declared a resurgence of coronavirus infections as the country heads into winter. Health authorities made the announcement on Wednesday because infections have been rising for four weeks, while serious cases and deaths have also increased.

Daily infections have stood above 60,000 for two days, although the tally decreased to 55,365 cases on Thursday morning. Deaths reached 59 on Wednesday, the highest figure in 45 days.

Health officials said they will focus on vaccinating and treating vulnerable groups like nursing-home patients and immune-compromised people, but there will be no fresh lockdown. Mask-wearing remains mandatory at some indoor venues and infected people should self-isolate for seven days.

The low vaccination rate is the biggest problem. Only 58,078 people had bivalent vaccine shots as of Wednesday, raising the cumulative number to just 1.32 million or three percent of the population. Even among the elderly, the bivalent booster rate is only nine percent and among high-risk patients 6.9 percent.

"Many people seem to think that they have gained immunity from earlier vaccinations or getting infected, but immunity weakens over time and this is not enough to prevent infections with new variants," a health official said.