From the 31st, the COVID-19 infectious disease grade will be lowered from the existing grade 2 to grade 4, the same as influenza (flu).
With the downgrading of the infectious disease rating, recovery to daily life has accelerated and the disease has become closer to endemic (an infectious disease that has become endemic) .
The government will implement the ‘COVID-19 Level 4 Infectious Disease Conversion and Step 2 Measures’, which was confirmed and announced on the 23rd, from this day.
COVID-19, which was previously classified as level 2 along with tuberculosis, measles, cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis A, and leprosy, will be lowered to level 4 from this day.
Domestic infectious diseases are classified into levels 1 to 4 depending on the level of risk, with level 4 being the lowest level. Grade 4 infectious diseases such as COVID-19 include flu, acute respiratory infection, and hand, foot, and mouth disease.
COVID-19 was classified as level 1, the highest level, immediately after being introduced into the country in January 2020. It was level 2 on April 25 last year, but was later downgraded to level 4 one year and four months later.
Since level 4 is a sample surveillance infectious disease, the daily surveillance (counting all confirmed cases) that has been maintained so far will be suspended from this day.
In the future, a positive patient reporting system will be operated in which about 500 monitoring organizations participate. The status and trends of confirmed cases within surveillance organizations are announced as weekly statistics.
According to the level 2 daily recovery measures implemented along with the infectious disease rating, support for testing and treatment for the general public almost disappears, and protection measures for high-risk groups are maintained.
In order to focus on protecting high-risk groups, it was decided to maintain the remaining obligation to wear indoor masks at hospital-level or higher medical institutions and hospital-type infection-vulnerable facilities. Starting today, health insurance support for the cost of gene amplification (PCR) testing and rapid antigen testing (RAT) will be provided to those taking oral medications classified as high-risk groups (over 60 years old스포츠토토, patients over 12 years old with underlying diseases, high-risk hospitalized patients, and emergency room/intensive care
unit residents ) . (Applies only to patients)
General citizens who are not eligible for oral treatment must bear the full cost of the test themselves.
In order to provide support for edible treatments, it was decided to maintain a free support system to intensively protect high-risk groups, and to promote registration in health insurance in the future.
Hospitalization treatment cost support was also applicable to all hospitalized patients, but from this day on, it will only be provided for intensive care unit isolation admission fees and severe treatment (non-invasive ventilator, high-flow oxygen therapy, invasive ventilator, ECMO, CRRT, etc.) with high cost among the treatment costs for critically ill patients until the end of the year . maintain.
Living support expenses provided to confirmed cases in households below 100% of the standard median income, and paid leave expenses provided to companies that provide paid leave to workers quarantined or hospitalized due to COVID-19 will be suspended.
The designation as an outpatient medical institution will be lifted and the management of at-home therapists will end.
However, approximately 500 screening clinics will remain open for the time being and support testing of high-risk groups until the epidemic situation becomes more stable. A medical system centered on permanent designated beds and general beds for inpatient treatment will also be maintained.
Vaccinations will also continue to be provided free of charge to all citizens, and winter vaccinations are scheduled to begin in October.
The crisis level of COVID-19 is maintained at ‘alert’. When downgrading the status to ‘caution’ in the future, we decided to implement additional quarantine mitigation measures, such as further reducing support for testing costs and ending the operation of screening clinics.