Health authorities have projected that omicron will become the dominant COVID-19 variant in about a week. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) issued the outlook on Friday, saying omicron is expected to account for more than half of COVID-19 cases in the nation around next Friday. 

Currently, omicron accounts for some 20 percent of total cases since the first case of the highly-infectious variant was reported in the country on November 24 of last year, some seven weeks ago.

The highly transmissible variant now accounts for more than half of all COVID-19 cases in the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Israel, four to six weeks after they reported their first cases.

The KDCA forecast that daily cases could surge up to 30-thousand with critical cases hitting up to 17-hundred at the end of February depending on the degree to which social distancing is eased.