South Korea COVID spike, what can we learn?

Since March, the world has been struck by the global pandemic COVID 19, otherwise known as the Coronavirus pandemic. South Korea is a country in particular that seemed to be ahead of the virus and instead of issuing a nationwide lockdown developed one of the most well organized testing programs in the world.

          However, last month, South Korea saw the largest spike in cases since March. Because of this rise, the country has had to issue new restrictions that were not in place in March. On August 19th, S. Korea reported 297 new infections, which marked the 6th straight day of cases in the hundreds. This caused distress in South Korea because they had previously been able to avoid outbreaks previously. The Vice Minister of Health, Kim Gang-lip, said “We’re in a desperately dangerous crisis where infections are spreading in the Seoul metropolitan area and threatening to lead to a massive nationwide transmission,” Aljazeera. 

The government has strongly urged citizens to stay home unless they need to go out, along with stronger physical distancing restrictions for cities such as Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonigi such as no gatherings of more than 50 people indoors and 100 indoors. In addition to this the government has also shut down many public places of business including restaurants, cafes and churches which one of the reasons that the case rate spiked. 

A church in Northern Seoul, South Korea, Sarang Jeil Church was linked to approximately 739 new cases and the preacher had also tested positive for the virus. This particular church as well as as a few other smaller churches in Seoul South Korea have been linked to new cases. 

As of October 4th, South Korea has 24,091 cases, 21,845 have recovered and 421 have died. 
Despite the spike in cases, South Korea was prepared. At the start of the pandemic, when China had the most cases, South Korea had developed commercial test kits and distributed them to health centers and were able to identify almost 3000 cases in 12 days. Preparedness also included among other things, widespread data collection such as from private data collection, as well as contact tracing. In addition to this, South Korea held briefings led by scientists, and not politicians, which helped build a strong message on public health and allowed for cooperation and trust between citizens. Some may disagree however with South Korea’s tactics, especially because it relies heavily on public trust, and involves the invasion of privacy and a centralized government action which the US has not been able to achieve. However, according to Jennifer Bouey, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, a public policy research organization, “within a pandemic, freedom is a little bit different.”

Article by Hallie Rozario from Springbrook High School

Photo by May Pham of Walter Johnson High School