Seoul, Aug 19 (IANS) Amid the rising Covid-19 infections in South Korea, the government on Monday approved a reserve fund of 326.8 billion won for additional purchase of treatments, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The amount, approved by the country’s State Council, “can purchase approximately 262,000 doses of the treatment”, the KDCA said in a statement.
As the use of therapeutics has surged more than 40-fold in a month due to the recent summer resurgence of Covid-19, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance have been urgently pursuing procedures to secure a budget for additional purchases since late July.
The KDCA noted plans to supply the additional quantity to pharmacies nationwide by next week to stabilise the supply of treatment within this month.
In addition, the 262,000 doses of the additional treatment purchased this time are expected to be stably supplied to high-risk groups until October.
From October, the government will also quickly pursue health insurance registration with the relevant ministries so that the treatment can be supplied within the general medical system.
Meanwhile, a senior health ministry official on Monday said the number of Covid patients in the country is expected to reach 350,000 next week, matching a peak seen in last year’s summer wave.
Hong Jung-ik, director-general in charge of infectious disease policy at the KDCA, told a radio interview that health authorities have no plan to raise an alert level for Covid while supplying enough treatments and testing kits, Yonhap news agency reported.
“Although the current number of patients is about half of what was reported in August last year, considering the summer season trends over the past two years, the weekly figure could reach 350,000 by the end of this month, similar to last year’s peak,” Hong said.
Health authorities have expected the current wave of Covid to peak later this month.
Hong said that the government has been distributing Covid treatments and noted that sufficient volume will be available at local pharmacies by the end of this month.
Last week, the presidential office said the country will supply treatments for 260,000 Covid patients.
Hong added that the government will supply more than 5 million testing kits by the end of this month.
On Sunday, the country’s disease control agency said the level of the Covid virus in wastewater has nearly doubled in just a week.
It sharply rose from the 24,602 copies per millilitre recorded the previous week, to 47,640 copies per millilitre.
–IANS
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