COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in Korea. Currently, the variant leading the COVID-19 pandemic is KP.3 of the Omicron family.

The spread of COVID-19 has been in full swing since the end of June, and the number of hospitalized patients in the 2nd week of this month reached 1,366, recording the highest this year. In the last four weeks, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 cases in 220 hospital-level surveillance centers nationwide was 226 in the 3rd week of July, 474 in the 4th week, 880 in the 1st week of August, and 1,366 in the 3rd week.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has stated that the KP.3 variant is highly contagious but has a low severity and fatality rate, ma