The government said on Thursday that up to two thousand critical COVID-19 cases are manageable under the current medical response system. 

Son Young-rae, a senior health official, gave his assurance at a media briefing in response to the signs of resurgence in the number of patients with severe symptoms in the nation. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) earlier reported 389 critical cases compiled throughout Tuesday, which is 76 more than the previous day and the highest in about three weeks. 

Son said the government anticipates such a jump in critical cases some time this week given the two- to three-week-long interval between the trends regarding daily and critical figures. 

He said health authorities can handle 15-hundred and even two-thousand such cases in their current capacity, adding the pace of increase in critical cases is also much slower compared to the wave triggered by the delta variant.

Regarding the substantially low number of critical cases per population compared to many other countries, another senior health official Im Suk-young attributed it to the high booster shot vaccination rate among those aged 60 and older.