Officials have estimated around 13.5 per cent of new cases would be classified as high-risk groups.
The government had already scrapped contact tracing and mandatory self-isolation reports based on global positioning system technology.
“The previous scheme is no longer realistic in light of our limited resources, and takes massive social and economic costs compared with our medical needs,” health ministry spokesman Son Young-rae told a briefing on Wednesday.
“The goal of our new Omicron response system is to minimise serious cases and deaths by focusing on diagnosing and treating high-risk groups, and to prevent the saturation and collapse of our medical capacity.”
South Korea’s daily number of new cases hit another daily record of 54,122 for Wednesday, bringing its total infections to 1,185,361 among its 52 million people, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
But new deaths remain low at 20, bringing the total of 6,943 deaths.
The daily count has surged more than two-fold in less than a week, and could reach some 170,000 cases later this month with up to one million in home treatment, the KDCA has said.
About 96 per cent of South Korean adults have been fully vaccinated and almost 65 per cent received a booster shot.
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