The stealth omicron detection rate was 41.4%, an increase of 15.1%p from 26.3% the previous week, and the quarantine authorities announced on the 21st that they would extend the peak.
Jung Eun-kyung, head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said, "Since the generation period for propagation is as short as 0.5 days, there is a risk of transmission, which may affect the scale or peak. Micron) is not a re-fashion, but the market share is changing in the current situation, so I think it can affect the fashion as well." CNBC reported that the infectious power of Omicron is 1.5 times higher than that of the existing Omicron.
Professor Lawrence Young at Warwick University said, "It is clear that BA.2 is more contagious than BA.1 (existing omicron), and moreover, the current infection epidemic was caused by mitigating quarantine and lowering immunity (time after vaccination). ' he told CNBC.
In Germany, more than half of the new cases have already been classified as infected with BA.2, while in the United States, about 11%.
The spread of stealth omicron in Korea was on the 21st, with a detection rate of 41.4% domestically and 56.9% imported from abroad.
Sohn Young-rae, head of the social strategy division, said on the 16th, "The fatality rate has been lower than 0.1% for the last four weeks. The short-term fatality rate is similar to the current seasonal flu." He ordered the downgrade to discuss with the medical community how to adjust the COVID-19 infectious disease rating to the changed situation."
BA.2 was named 'Stealth Omicron' as it showed evasion of detection of Omicron in the gene amplification (PCR) test. There were 109,610 fewer than the 309,779 on the 14th, 1537 fewer than the 21,706 on the 7th two weeks ago, and the highest of 611,000 on the 16th.
From the 21st, the government released the social distancing measures, allowing up to 8 people to attend private gatherings regardless of whether or not they were vaccinated.