South Korea’s inspiring success with virus countermeasures will be a beacon of hope for other nations if it continues. That’s because Science Mag says new cases were down to 74 on March 17, 2020. This was after they previously peaked at 909 daily on February 29, 2020. So how did a country of 50 million people achieve this? Let’s let Professor Kim Woo-joo from Korea University Guro Hospital (the man in the video) explain.
Extensive Testing Behind South Korea’s Inspiring Success with Virus
South Korea is a democratic republic, Professor Kim Woo-joo says. Therefore we did not consider lock down a reasonable choice, he explains. Instead, the nation launched the largest mass Covid-19 testing program outside of Bahrain. During this time it tested over 270,000 people, or 5,200 per million residents. By contrast the United States’ ratio is just 74, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Raina MacIntyre, emerging infectious disease scholar at University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia has this to say. South Korea’s inspiring success with Covid virus countermeasures has demonstrated the power of contact tracing, diagnostic capacity and case isolation beyond doubt. However, the country is still alert for sporadic outbreaks.
Circle Back to This Video after You Finish Reading
South Korea Had a Head Start from Past Experience
A South Korean businessman brought the Middle East respiratory system (MERS) virus to South Korea in 2015. Unfortunately, inexperience at three health facilities meant he set off a chain reaction before successful diagnosis. After that, tracing, testing, and quarantining stopped the outbreak within two months.
However, the government and the country were shaken to the roots. The administration passed enabling legislation allowing it to collect mobile phone, credit card, and other location data from infected people.
Then it shared this information – stripped of personal identifiers – on social media apps. This gave South Koreans a chance to check whether their paths had crossed with a Covid-19 carrier, and report this if they had. This reverse contact tracing method was a fundamental factor behind South Korea’s inspiring success with virus control.
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Preview Image: Korean Medical Research Network
