Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters – South Korea’s coronavirus infection totals more than 10,000,000, or almost 20% of its entire population. This is due to an increase in severe cases and the deaths that have been reported, according to authorities. It also puts a strain on funeral homes and crematories nationwide.

The nation has struggled with a record COVID-19 outbreak triggered by Omicron, a highly contagious variant of the Omicron virus. Despite having largely abandoned its aggressive quarantine and tracing efforts, it was able to ease social distancing restrictions and essentially scrapped all quarantine and tracing strategies.

Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, (KDCA), reported that 490,881 people were infected on Tuesday. It is second most recent daily report after March 16’s peak of 621,205. Total caseload reached 10,427.247 with 13 432 deaths. This is 291 more than a day earlier.

The nation’s death and infection rates remain low, with almost 87% of 52 million people fully vaccinated. 63% also have booster shots.

The death rate nearly doubled within six weeks. Daily fatalities reached 429 on Friday. This has fueled demand for funeral arrangements.

Monday’s directive by the government directed the 60 nationwide crematories to work for longer hours and burn seven more bodies than five. It also instructed 1,136 funeral homes that could store around 8,700 body to grow their capacities.

Son Young-rae, a health ministry official said that they have discussed how to strengthen crematories in order to lessen public inconvenience. While crematories’ capacities are increasing, regional differences remain.

Since last week, authorities have increased the daily combined cremation capacity by about 1,400 to 1,000 per day. Son stated that there was still a huge backlog and long waiting times in Seoul’s densely populated Greater Seoul.

Data from the health ministry showed that 28 Seoul crematories were operating at approximately 114.2% capacity, while it was only 83% for other areas such as Sejong.

Son stated that crematories will temporarily be allowed to accept reservations from other regions. This is in an effort to reduce the current pileup.

Park Hyang, another official from the health ministry, said that although it has hovered above 1000 in recent weeks, it could rise to 2000 by April.

As of Wednesday, 64.4% were occupied in the ICU beds, as compared to 59% just two weeks ago.

Park stated that the medical system was under significant pressure but is operating within a manageable range.

“We will be focusing more on high-risk group going forward. We also make regular checks to avoid any blind spots.”