The government has said that it remains difficult to forecast when the ongoing transmission of the omicron variant of COVID-19 will begin to taper off.

Senior health ministry official Son Young-rae said on Wednesday that further monitoring will be required before determining whether daily cases will begin to subside soon after reaching the variant's peak.

The official said the increase in daily caseloads is assessed to have slowed and that the decrease in cases will be the major topic of discussion over the next one to two weeks.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said the transmission is expected to reach its peak within the next one to two weeks.