SEOUL, 23 August (EFE) – South Korea will equate the covid-19 risk category with seasonal flu from August 31, which will require lifting its special hygiene measures and returning to pre-pandemic normalcy state.
South Korean health authorities announced the decision on Wednesday after the number of infections in the Asian country fell last week for the first time in two months.
“The spread of COVID-19 since the fourth week of June has slowed down and decreased recently, and the overall isolation situation has stabilized,” said Jee Young-mee, head of the COVID-19 prevention and control agency in South Korea (KDCA), local agency Statement collected by Yonhap News Agency.
Asian countries must now focus on protecting high-risk groups rather than daily case numbers, so the classification of the virus will be raised from level 2 to level 4, which will mean a transition to a normal state, the center said. System, health, he explained.
Level four is the lowest in the country and is comparable to other diseases such as influenza, while level two includes other diseases such as tuberculosis, measles or cholera, forcing health authorities to isolate sick people.
So South Korea is following in the footsteps of its neighbor Japan, which last May equated covid-19 with seasonal flu and eased special hygiene measures such as quarantine recommendations, and other countries that have made that decision before.