Health authorities have warned that the peak of the current wave could come later than expected with the surge of the so-called stealth omicron.

During a Central Disease Control Headquarters briefing on Monday, KDCA Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said there remains a possibility that the current trend will expand or reach its peak later than expected, given the inclusion of professional rapid antigen test results in daily counts and the impact of the BA.2 sublineage, considered more transmissible than the BA.1.

She added that BA.2 accounted for over 41 percent of analyzed cases in the community, while it accounted for nearly 57 percent of cases coming in from overseas.

The proportion of the stealth omicron variant has more than tripled in the last four weeks.

Concerns linger that the current trend could be further affected by the eased social distancing rules that take effect from Monday.