South Korea reported two deaths from the Omicron variant. Local officials said this was the first case of death linked to the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus.
Health authorities in Gwangju City revealed that the two patients who died were confirmed positive for the Omicron variant. Both are known to be around 90 years old.
Quoted from Yonhap News Agency, the two patients were infected with COVID-19 and had been hospitalized since a few days ago. The patients died on Monday (27/12/2021) and Wednesday (29/12/2021), respectively.
They are reported to be the first cases of death associated with the Omicron variant in South Korea. Until now, the local health authorities are still looking for the exact cause of death of the two elderly patients.
Recently, the cases of the Omicron variant in South Korea are increasing sharply. As of last Friday (12/31/2021), there have been 269 cases of Omicron in the country.
Of the 269 cases, 186 foreign arrivals and 83 local transmission cases. About 70 percent of these cases are imported cases originating from the United States.
As a measure to prevent the variant from spreading further, South Korean health authorities used a new PCR test to detect the Omicron variant. This test tool can detect variants in 3-4 hours.
“With the introduction of the rapid test, there was an increase in the test itself, which led to an increase in confirmed cases. We also consider that the variant has penetrated the local community to some degree,” said Park Young-joon, an official at KCDA. .
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