Infections in South Korea increase, Bill Gates says Covid-19 is less dangerous

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said the number of infections in the country over the past week has increased sharply due to the Omicron variant of the virus.Covid-19continues to rage. New cases recorded on February 19 were 102,200, more than double the number of infections detected on February 10.

South Korean health officials predict that the wave of Omicron variant infections will likely begin to peak around the end of this month or early March, when the number of new infections is expected to reach 130,000-180,000 cases per day.

However, the government has recently decided to relax some restrictions on the service industry, such as allowing cafes and restaurants to open until 10 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. But the authorities still decided to only allow a maximum of six people to meet privately.

Health data as of February 19 released by Yonhap news agency shows that more than 30.3 million people, or 59.1% of the South Korean population, have received booster shots of the Covid-19 vaccine. The rate of people receiving full doses of the vaccine reached 86.3% of the total population.

Bill Gates says Covid-19 is less dangerous

Billionaire Bill Gates said the risk from the Covid-19 epidemic has decreased, but a new pandemic will certainly occur in the future. "We will have to face new pandemics caused by other pathogens related to this family of viruses," Mr. Bill Gates told reporters at the annual Security Conference held in Munich, Germany.

According to Mr. Gates, it is now "too late" for the goal of vaccinating 70% of the world's population against Covid-19 by mid-year set by the World Health Organization (WHO), especially in the context that only 61.9% of the world's population has received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

The Microsoft founder later said that if investments in medicine were made now, breakthroughs in medical technology would put the world in a better position to fight the new pandemic. “The world of the future needs to be faster in developing and distributing vaccines, and countries should invest now,” Mr. Gates said.

“The next time we have a pandemic, instead of two years, we should have a vaccine in six months. The cost of getting ready for the next pandemic is not that great. It’s not like climate change. If we think rationally, we can stop the next pandemic early,” Gates added.

Hong Kong strengthens anti-epidemic work

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the city will set up 10,000 hospital beds in two new community facilities with help from Beijing, Channel News Asia reported. In addition, 114 Chinese medical staff were sent to help authorities in the city fight the epidemic on February 19.

According to data from Hong Kong authorities, medical staff here discovered 6,063 new infections on February 19, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases since the outbreak in this special administrative region to 46,763.

Some other developments about the epidemic

Updated at 5am on February 20 by the global statistics site Worldometers, the Covid-19 epidemic is raging in 220 countries and territories, infecting more than 423.4 million people and claiming the lives of more than 5.9 million patients. The number of recoveries reached more than 348.2 million cases.