People wear masks at the Chonnam National University Hospital in Gwangju, Friday, amid a resurgence of COVID-19. Yonhap

A Seoul-based office worker surnamed Kim, 34, recently tested positive for COVID-19 in a self-test but continued going to work, unlike the time she contracted the disease during the pandemic two years ago.

“Resting at home because you are infected with COVID-19 is unimaginable these days. You will be lucky to get sick leave or a day off without getting on your boss' nerves,” Kim said.

This is because COVID-19's alert level as an infectious disease has been lowered and the use of sick leave due to the infectious disease is no longer mandated.

Lee, a 41-year-old office worker residing in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, also tested positive a week ago but continued going to work despite suffering from the symptoms.

“We were banned from coming to the office during the pandemic so we could recover at home, but now that's no longer true. I had to use my annual leave to take time off, so I had no choice but to endure in the office with a runny nose, cough and muscle aches,” he said.

Wearing a mask nowadays amid the heat wave is almost unbearable, he added, but he worried that he would infect others around him. So he endured and wore masks.

Another worker surnamed Park, 48, felt COVID-like symptoms like muscle pain and sore throat about two weeks ago, but did not undergo testing and just took cold medicine. "The symptoms were manageable that I could continue going to the office for work. I didn't take the test, because if I tested positive, it would bother so many people around me. I still don't know whether it was COVID-19 or just a cold," he said.

As seen in these cases, most people with COVID-19 symptoms do not get tested, and those who are confirmed positive continue their daily routines without any self-isolation or other quarantine measures.

This is largely because of eased quarantine regulations that no longer oblige self-distancing, mask wearing and other measures that had been in effect during the peak of the pandemic.

And this situation is believed to be driving the rapid resurgence of the virus this summer.

A notice at a pharmacy in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, reads that the pharmacy ran out of COVID-19 self-test kits amid a nationwide resurgence of the contagious disease, Friday. Yonhap

According to a sample monitoring of 220 major hospitals by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the number of hospitalized patients this year with COVID-19 had continued to decline since the first week of February with 875 cases, but has been rising again since the end of June.

In the second week of July, 148 people were hospitalized, and the figure increased to 226 in the third week, 475 in the fourth week and 861 in the first week of August — nearly doubling every week.

The government is no longer tallying the daily number of patients but only counts the number of hospitalized patients.

The actual number of infected people is presumed to be much higher than the tallied one, considering those who test positive but continue their daily routines or who just get through the disease without knowing they are infected.

The health authorities, however, are maintaining the current alert level, believing it is not yet necessary to raise it. It is only emphasizing the compliance of personal hygiene rules, such as mask-wearing and regular ventilation in indoor facilities.

Since August last year, government support for confirmed cases and inpatient treatment was drastically reduced. The government no longer gives financial support to companies that provide paid leave to infected workers.

From May this year when the COVID-19 alert level reached its lowest, confirmed patients were recommended to self-quarantine until 24 hours after improvement of major symptoms, an eased rule from the previous five-day quarantine. Still this is a recommendation, not mandatory.

Under such circumstances, those at highest risk, such as older adults in nursing facilities, show concerns.

"The elderly we take care of are among those with the weakest immunity," said a Seoul-based elderly care facility worker surnamed Jeong. "We are paying more attention, wearing masks, due to concerns about the recent spread of 'dark transmission.'"

Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital, said, "Young people can suffer COVID-19 lightly, but the problem is that it can lead older adults and those with underlying diseases to critical illness or death."

He worried the number of deaths could increase if the virus spreads to nursing homes with many immunocompromised people.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said that the culture of resting when sick should be settled, but looking at the current situation, it seems that is not yet the case," he said. "The government's support has disappeared, so how can small and medium-sized enterprises tell employees to rest at home when they are sick? Each of us has to be careful, but it will not be easy."