According to the assumption that COVID-19 had mutated into a more flu-like disease after being exposed to omicron, South Korea has withdrawn from its pandemic response approach known as "test, trace, treat." According to health officials, the appearance of Omicron necessitated the development of a new strategy "attuned to the changes in the features of the virus" and a break from previous approaches to dealing with the epidemic.

To this point in Korea's omicron journey, the widely advertised promise of a gentler virus is evaporating by the day. The pandemic situation in this country has deteriorated, with the latest version claiming more lives and putting more people in hospitals than any of its predecessors.

'Omicron will set us free,' says the group.

The omicron strategy was implemented across the country two days after the variant's share of the weekly assessed cases reached 50 percent on January 24 (see chart). With the plan in place, the country was able to eliminate the majority of the measures in place to contain the outbreak and treat patients.

The contact tracing process was completed, and the isolation period for those who tested positive for COVID-19 was reduced to seven days after the initial positive test result was received. In the end, quarantine regulations for close connections were dropped completely.. It has become more difficult to gain access to resources such as polymerase chain reaction testing, which are now reserved primarily for persons over the age of 60.

An underlying assumption guiding this policy shift at the onset of the omicron age was that a surge led by a milder virus could assist the country in reaching an endemic stage.

In a news event on Jan. 26, Ministry of Health and Welfare spokesperson Son Young-rae clarified that this was not the same as delta sclerosis (DSM).

As a result, he added, "While instances may rise temporarily, I am certain that our response system will be able to minimize the overall damage." He urged people to "accept the science that public health officials provide, and don't worry about the statistics."

It was claimed by him that omicron was less lethal than the formerly dominant delta version — an estimate that was later revised to half or one-third of the original value — and that it was also considered to inflict less harm.

When it came to persons under the age of 60, the death rate for omicron was "almost zero percent." Overall, omicron was proving to be about as deadly as the seasonal flu, according to the researcher, however the situation was different for those who had not been vaccinated and for the elderly.

He stated that omicron was still harmful for some but was mild and flu-like for the majority, and that it required "targeted protection of high-risk groups."

Just two months after the strategy was put in place, Korea is experiencing some of the highest rates of new infections and deaths anywhere in the world. According to Son, who spoke to reporters on March 23, this was "inevitable." "It was inevitable that it would happen at some point," he remarked. He asserted that, once the surge has passed, the country will be rewarded with the possibility of progressing toward the aim of normalcy of living.

Jung Jae-hun, the prime minister's COVID-19 advisor and author of the post, said the omicron wave "may be in a sense the final big surge in this pandemic," and that it "may be a period during which we make a fundamental transition in our society's response to the pandemic." Dr. Jung Jae-hun is the author of the post. Another post, published on February 4, stated, "Once we have confirmed that the crest of the wave has passed, we can begin to pursue an exit strategy."

"We're getting close to the end of our voyage, which has been going on for more than two years," he explained. "I am hopeful that we will be able to work together to overcome this crisis, which is on the verge of becoming the last."

According to a representative for the Health Ministry on March 2, the rationale for the omicron plan is that the intensive social distancing of the delta days is "neither practical nor cost-effective." Furthermore, because omicron is a weaker element, doing so would pose little danger to the general public.

In a similar vein, Jeong Eun-kyeong, commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, stated at a March 21 press briefing that "because of omicron's high transmissibility, there has already been substantial exposure in the community," and that "controlling the outbreak with social distancing alone will have significant limitations."

According to Dr. Oh Ju-hwan of Seoul National University's Department of Public Health, the emphasis on social distancing overshadows what health officials should be doing without having to persuade people to stay at home and endure the acute isolation of the early epidemic days.

He claims that by utilizing social distance as a "blanket word" for pandemic control efforts, health officials were able to persuade the public that we no longer had to compromise our liberties in order to contain the virus. This idea that social separation is the sole approach is false, and it has been used as an excuse by authorities to do less of what they should be doing.

With the development of omicron, the first steps to be abandoned were those that imposed the most administrative difficulties, such as thorough contact tracking and testing, which Korea had previously been proud of, according to him. While health officials were fast to repeal the no-cost testing-for-all policy and contact tracing, they maintained social distance regulations for the general public, albeit with some relaxation. Even while the cap on the size of personal gatherings and the nightly curfews for stores are still in effect, it is expected that they will be lifted in the near future.

Following the emergence of the omicron virus as the dominant virus in Korea in late January, Google Mobility Trends shows that movements have been on the decline. In particular, visits to retail and recreation establishments have decreased significantly compared to the period in which the delta variety was wreaking havoc on communities across the country in late 2021.

"When the number of cases increases and hospitals become overcrowded, people willingly exercise caution," Oh explained. This data shows that, contrary to what some politicians and academics believe, the current increase in mobility is not caused by a lack of social separation.

However, despite the fact that health experts are quick to point out the hardships of social isolation and how they are no longer sustainable, what was noticeably absent were efforts to test and trace cases in order to determine the exact scope of the outbreak, according to him,

Active tracing was also necessary to "monitor variants," he explained, because allowing the virus to "go rampant in the population" provided it with more opportunity to mutate.

In the words of Oh, the omicron reaction plan of naturally infecting children and hybrid infecting adults while sheltering only the most vulnerable is a replay of the Great Barrington Declaration, which was issued in the first year of the epidemic. Those who signed the proclamation urged for targeted protection of high-risk populations while allowing those who were not deemed to be at risk to lead relatively normal lives.

In contrast to the time when the proclamation was written, there are now vaccines and therapies available. However, he noted that there is still little evidence to suggest that natural immunity gained by omicron infection will provide reliable protection against the next variation outbreaks.

In his opinion, "If natural immunity were truly superior, then contracting a mild ailment would be regarded a blessing, which it is not." As a result of a mix of vaccination and spontaneous infection, "the'super immunity' that results is at best a guess."

In reality, evidence to the opposite is becoming more and more prevalent. "Omicron breakthrough infections are less immunogenic than delta infections," according to a study published on March 17 in the journal Cell. "As a result, they provide less protection against reinfection or infection from future variations." According to a preprint study published on March 23, reinfection with the COVID-19 virus "occurs on a regular basis and can affect a considerable proportion of the population." The absolute impact of reinfections "may become significant for health-care systems," the report said.

Despite the fact that the omicron plan has resulted in a record number of deaths and hospitalizations, "Korea is pressing ahead with it under the assumption that, at the end of the wave, protective levels of immunity will have been established in the community, allowing us to return to normalcy," Oh said.

If we're wrong — and there's a good possibility we're wrong — then so many people would have died for nothing that they wouldn't even be considered collateral damage," says the author.

Koreans are dying in greater numbers than ever before due to the omicron wave.

The impact of Omicron on fatality patterns is undeniable. Since the onset of omicron dominance, it has taken 54 days for the total number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Korea to more than double, from 6,712 total deaths on January 28 to 13,432 total deaths on March 22, according to the latest available data.

It is worth noting that the one-day high of 469 COVID-19 deaths reached on March 23 — which translates to approximately 6 deaths per 1 million people on a seven-day rolling average — is higher than the number of deaths experienced by many other developed economies at the height of their respective omicron waves. The omicron wave in the United Kingdom peaked at 4 deaths per 1 million on January 18, while the wave in Australia peaked at 3 deaths per 1 million on January 29. The high mortality tolls in this area are likely due to the fact that the worst of omicron is yet to arrive.

According to Dr. Lee Jong-koo, a former Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief, while the official death toll is already astonishing, it is vital to remember that the true number of deaths will only climb in the coming months and years.

In 2009, Lee, who was in charge of Korea's national health protection agency during the H1N1 flu pandemic, stated that the country was "basically following a natural immunity approach," which "had no basis in science or fact." "Although no one has openly stated that this is what we are doing, it appears to be what we are doing, and it is having disastrous repercussions," he stated.

Over the course of the past week, more than 350 people have died in Korea every day. The 8,172 deaths reported in March represented approximately half of the known 16,230 deaths that have occurred since the start of the pandemic.

"Never before had such a large number of individuals perished from an infectious sickness in a single day," Lee stated.

During the omicron wave's devastation of hospitals, people who would have survived under normal conditions have been dying as a result of a lack of or a delay in access to care, according to him. "These are what we refer to as 'excess' deaths."

According to a data published on March 14 by Statistics Korea, monthly death rates have "consistently exceeded" the rates observed in the three years before to September last year.

The increase in the number of additional deaths was notably noticeable among the elderly. When the post-reopening hospital bed crisis reached its zenith in December 2018, the excess mortality rate among people aged 65 to 84 increased by 18 percent and the excess mortality rate among those aged 85 and older increased by 21 percent when compared to the three-year average number of deaths from the same month in 2018-2020.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, formerly known as the Korea CDC, more than 95 percent of omicron-related deaths occurred in adults aged 60 and older.

It is possible that the rate at which Omicron is killing elderly people would cause a decrease in the country's average age by summer, according to infectious disease professor Dr. Kim Woo-joo of Korea University's School of Medicine. "It's like being in the middle of a senicidal nightmare," he explained.

Kim explained that the lower severity of omicron was outweighed by its potential to disseminate and sicken a large number of people at the same time.

"The absolute toll of the Omicron wave is not taken into consideration in policy decisions, with the focus being on its decreased virulence relative to the delta," he stated. "However, consider this. It doesn't matter if the chance of dying from omicron is tenfold lower; if tenfold more individuals become infected, the damages will ultimately outweigh any advantages of the milder severity."

According to data from Statistics Korea, the winter flu was responsible for approximately 720 deaths each year during the previous decade at its worst. Kim, who served as the director of the national influenza clinics from 1991 to 2001, believes the genuine count is closer to 2,000 to 3,000 people. Despite this, omicron was able to murder 3,661 people in under two weeks, from March 8 to March 21.

As the number of fatalities continues to rise, crematoriums and funeral homes around the country are finding it difficult to keep up. According to the Health Ministry, an average of 1,100 bodies were incinerated each day during the first two weeks of March, which is approximately 391 more than the three-year daily average of 719 for the same month in 2018-2020. The unexpected increase in the number of deceased individuals awaiting cremation prompted the Health Ministry to compel public crematories to extend their operating hours on March 16.

"In my opinion, there is nothing that justifies 300 to 400 people dying every day, with morgues running out of space for the bodies they receive. "The saddest aspect is that we don't know if this will be the last outbreak of the virus," Kim of Korea University said in a statement.

Dr. Eom Joong-sik, chief infectious disease specialist at Gachon University Medical Center, a state-designated COVID-19 hospital outside Seoul, said his hospital just purchased additional morgue coolers to accommodate the increased demand. "Omicron is by far the worst outbreak we've seen so far in the pandemic," says the doctor. While comparing influenza to other diseases, it's important to remember that the rates we're seeing currently are a result of masking, populationwide immunization, and distancing — things we don't do with influenza."

As if there were waves at the beach

According to Dr. Jerome Kim, the director-general of the International Vaccine Institute, it is dangerous to believe that the omicron wave represents the end of the world.

"Like the flu, we have to look about this in terms of a dynamic, not a static, annual situation." According to him, "it's more like a series of waves on the beach," one after another.

The next one will be more infectious and a little more serious, will it not? Possibly. Or is it just as severe? Possibly. It's not the same as the flu. Omicron and its'spawn,' BA.2, as well as recombinants and other varieties, are capable of reinfecting those who have already been infected and putting enough patients in the hospital to fill 1,100 intensive care units. Additionally, it is not like the flu."

It is clear from nations that have already been affected by omicron that reinfection "within two months is conceivable, or not unusual," he said, which is also in contrast to the flu. "Europe is resurgent following the omicron wave, and it is not due to the flu." The original omicron is being replaced by a new subvariant that is evolving. "It's also not like getting the flu."

He predicted that even after the omicron wave subsides, Korea would still have a big enough susceptible population to be affected by another wave within a few months due to rapidly fading immunity and the virus's proclivity to re-infect easily after it has passed.

According to him, even if only 25 percent of the Korean population becomes sick, there is still a chance that the remaining 75 percent could become infected if a variant or subvariant identical to omicron appears or is reintroduced from a country that already has it three to four months from now.

"There are persons who have been infected more more once, and who have been vaccinated in the intervening period. Consequently, while natural infection and vaccination may prevent severe outcomes such as mortality, it may not prevent enough infections, resulting in ICUs becoming overcrowded once more."