What are the reasons for July Covid 4th Pandemic?

Jiyeon Choi

Recently confirmed cases for Covid have massively increased and the government has admitted that this is the beginning stage of the 4^th pandemic. The number of daily confirmed cases for the time being is expected to maintain around 1000. Many institutions and organizations are analyzing and looking for the main reasons for the 4^th pandemic and one of the rising opinions is the self-inspection kit which was introduced in April.

There were worries from the beginning about the accuracy of the kit since the sensitiveness of self-inspection kit is much lower than PCR inspection. Unfortunately, in some cases of false negative results by the self-inspection kit later turned out to be positive in PCR inspections and this happened in many families, workplaces, hospitals and etc, however, there are no data for false negative results or the number of kits released in the market as the health authorities are not conducting any follow-up monitoring, such as the use of self-inspection kits and information of false positive and false negative cases which should be improved urgently.

Chairman Kim Dae Up of The Korean Pharmaceutical Association said in April, when the kit was introduced, “Please those suspected of corona visit pharmacies that undergo PCR tests first, however if you want to purchase the corona self-inspection kit please be aware of the fact that it is only for reference, and the accurate positive-negative test will eventually be determined by PCR.”

Self-inspection kits are purchased by your personal charges but PCR tests at screening centers are free for suspected symptoms so rather than wasting your money and time on inaccurate inspection kit risking your health and others’, please try to visit screening centers near your house for effective PCR tests.