SEOUL — South Korea has been successful in containing Covid-19 for much of the pandemic, and it now has one of the highest vaccination rates among wealthy countries. Starting next month, a South Korean city will use facial recognition technology to automate contact tracing to speed up investigations. South Korea has administered vaccines from AstraZeneca PLC, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna Inc., and Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE. South Korea has reported 148 cases of Omicron variants, although Delta remains the dominant force in what has been the country’s worst pandemic outbreak. South Korea has never seen so many critically ill patients, with 90% of intensive care beds for Covid-19 patients occupied in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Source: Wall Street Journal December 18, 2021 12:16 UTC