More Koreans travel across the nation than before Covid-19 era

More Korean people are traveling in the nation during the summer vacation than before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. With an exploding demand for traveling, warnings are coming out that the 6th round of Covid-19 wave, which started last month, could get worse.

The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on Wednesday that 268.58 million mobile phones moved nationwide between August 1 and 7. The figure is an increase of 2.0 percent from the same period in 2019 (263.24 million), which is an increase for them three consecutive weeks since July 11-17 (245.45 million). The analysis has it that the suppressed travel demand has surged with the social distancing release on April 18. The social distancing had been enforced continuously since March 22, 2020.

The recent growth of Covid-19 confirmed cases are not irrelevant of the travel traffic during the vacation season. The new Covid-19 confirmed cases as of Wednesday midnight reached 151,177, which is the highest number since April 13 (195,387 cases) in 118 days. Particularly, 615 Covid-19 patients flew in from overseas on the day, which is also the highest figure since the Covid-19 pandemic started occurring in the nation.

There is a possibility that the size of infection could get larger than the original outlook. On August 4, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced its forecast that the 6th Covid-19 wave would peak-out with some 190,000 daily confirmed cases.

However, Lee Ki-il, a senior official at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, said that the spread of Covid-19 is picking up speed again. Sohn Young-rae, the head of Social Strategy at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, commented that there is a need to further observe the Covid-19 spreading trend.


Gun-Hee Cho becom@donga.com