The head of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency revealed on Dec 12 that the government may downgrade the infectious disease notification level of Covid-19 from the presently second-highest level of “alert” to the third-highest of “precaution”. “We (the government) are right now conversing the downgrade. Exactly when it will happen hasn’t been decided yet, but we’re looking at the situation and thinking it should be after the winter season (sometime in 2024), which is when infectious respiratory diseases are prevalent,” KDCA commissioner Ji Young-mi said in a meeting with reporters held in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.
“Even after the level has been lowered, things will not at that time get healthy again and perfect measures will be talked about.” Dr Ji’s comment follows an earlier media report that the government will be a part of discussion on bringing down the notification level during a meeting on Dec 15. South Korea has a four-level notification system for handling infectious diseases: “attention”, “caution”, “alert” and “serious” from lowest to highest. Covid-19 had been at the highest level since February 2020 before being downgraded to the “alert” level on June 1, 2023.