Health Minister noted at a Feb. 17 press conference that in order to allow enough time for the data to be compiled, starting Feb. 18, data on confirmed cases for a single day will be released at 10 a.m. the next day.
Ministry of Health will release other data, such as hospitalization rates, at 10 a.m. in a single release. He emphasized that new cases on a single day should not be observed alone, but must be observed along with other data to get a more comprehensive picture of the outbreak.
In addition, he noted that the average number of deaths per day in the country in the face of the omicron epidemic was 13, compared to an average of 345 deaths per day in the previous Delta outbreak. In last week, the country has seen a 109% increase in confirmed cases.
Ministry of Health has also implemented new measures to allow health care workers who have had close contact with confirmed patients and are asymptomatic to be tested and no longer need to be isolated. Ministry of Health is encouraging the private sector to follow the Ministry’s lead and allow asymptomatic close contacts to be tested on their own without the need for isolation.
