With daily new COVID-19 cases spiking to 170-thousand on Wednesday, the government said while the surge could present risks in the short term, it could very well contribute toward stabilizing the virus situation in the long term.

Senior health ministry official Son Young-rae said on Wednesday that, when considering the omicron variant’s significantly lower fatality rate compared to the delta variant, a substantial spike in caseload with omicron as the dominant strain could be a step toward restoring normalcy in people's lives.

In the U.S., where average daily cases were reaching around 800-thousand in mid-January at the height of omicron, the weekly average as of Tuesday had plunged to 89-thousand-24, or roughly one-tenth of previous levels.

In order to manage omicron's criticality and fatality rates in a stable manner, Son called for increased vaccination, especially among high-risk groups, and a mobilization of all available means to minimize serious cases and deaths.