The COVID-19 spread in South Korea has now entered the initial stages of pivoting into an endemic, according to the government.

Park Hyang, head of quarantine at the health ministry's Central Disaster Management Headquarters, on Tuesday stated that, although there is a long road ahead, South Korea has embarked upon a path toward finding an exit from the pandemic.

Park said if the country can effectively manage the spread of COVID-19 while maintaining a low fatality rate, the final stop would be integrating the omicron response with the management system for general infectious diseases. 

She added that, while the spread of omicron may resemble a crisis from a short-term perspective, in the long-term it will be an opportunity to return to normalcy if severe cases and deaths are controlled.

There has been no mention of a timeline, however, of a possible return to pre-pandemic normality.