South Korea: A Covid-19 success story
From the
time of the initial outbreak of Covid-19 a year ago, South Korea has been a
leader in the control of the spread of infection and the resultant death rate.
At present
(18 January 2021) the country has had 72,729 cases reported and 1,264 deaths.
With a population of 51.71 million people, that represents 24.4 deaths per
million. One of the lowest on the planet.
How did
they achieve this?
Much of the
low rate of spread was voluntary. People stayed home or away from others once
they had seen the results of the experience in Wuhan, China.
The
government put in place rigorous and extensive programs for testing and contact
tracing using rules allowing the use of phones and credit cards to determine
prior movements of people. This is unlike many western nations where people are
more concerned with “privacy” issues than with national health emergencies. But
the South Korean programs have probably been the most responsible for the
containment of the virus along with the support of the population.
From top to
bottom then from left to right: a queue in front of a pharmacy in Wonju for the
distribution of masks, a drone of disinfection in Seongnam, a closed elementary
school in Daegu, protest inscriptions against Shincheonji on a car, video call
between members of the South Korean government, manufacturing of masks in
Busan, 2020 South Korean legislative election, admission of a symptomatic
patient to a hospital in Busan, portable medical negative pressure isolation
stretcher in a fire station in Hoengseong, firefighters' training in Daegu,
thermal camera at the entrance to Wonju hospital, temperature check at Incheon
International Airport, drive-through testing in Gyeongju.
Testing
numbers have been estimated a 26 to 120 times higher than in other countries in
the first few months of the pandemic. Innovative drive-through centres were
opened to facilitate people getting tested quickly and efficiently.
Anyone
thought to have been near to infected individuals were alerted, prompting
immediate testing. Travel into and out of the country was discouraged. Once
identified with the virus those infected were required to go into isolation in
government shelters.
There was
no general lockdown of businesses but there was early closure of schools and
other facilities where people would normally gather in large numbers, such as
gyms and movie theatres. Major sporting activities wee allowed to go ahead in
April with no fans in the stands. Easing of restrictions was only done when
information about the rate of infections was better known and could be
controlled.
Through
April 2020, daily increases in the number of new cases were kept to single
digits.
Even with the higher numbers in south Korea’s third wave of infection, the number of new cases is still well under any other country of similar size. Canada, for example, has had 18,014 deaths to date, or 479 per million people. We average over 6,000 cases per day, over 10 times the number in South Korea.
Ongoing
testing, distribution of information and cooperation of South Korea’s people
have combined to allow the country to manage the pandemic very well.
No comments:
Post a Comment