Category: Korea-General Topics

The virus continues to spread in South Korea with no hints of slowing down yet:

With the number of confirmed coronavirus cases nearing 1,000 on Tuesday, South Korea vowed to maximize its containment measures in the southeastern city of Daegu and neighboring North Gyeongsang Province, where some 800 cases have been reported so far. 

The 144 additional cases brought the nation’s total infections to 977, according to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). It marked a more than 30-fold surge since Feb. 18, when the number stood at 31. 

Two clusters of infections — at a branch of a religious sect in Daegu and a hospital in the neighboring county of Cheongdo — have continued to expand, accounting for about 70 percent of the total cases in the country.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Israel is taking some very stringent measures against Korean visitors to stop the spread of the coronavirus because of recent pilgrims from Korea that brought the virus to the country:

On Sunday, the Israeli government officially issued an entry ban on foreign citizens coming from Korea and Japan starting Monday. 

Israel has already banned visitors coming from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Thailand.

A plane from Korea that landed in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport Saturday evening, carrying some 200 non-Israelis, was refused entry and forced to return to Korea with nearly all its original passengers just two hours later.

Several media outlets in Korea, citing the Israeli Travel Ministry’s office in Seoul, reported Sunday that Israel would also confine all 1,600 or so Koreans currently on Israeli soil to their current lodgings for 14 days, the amount of time the virus is believed to incubate in a human body. 

Korea’s Foreign Ministry denied the allegation, saying it confirmed with the Israeli government that no such measure would be enforced. The ministry added that it lodged a complaint with the Israeli government about the latter’s refusal to admit the passengers of Saturday’s flight from Korea. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

The coronavirus spread continues to get worse, particularly in Daegu:

South Korea reported another record daily spike in the number of new coronavirus cases on Monday, and two more deaths from COVID-19, with most new cases centered in the southeastern city of Daegu, where health authorities are shifting the focus of the anti-virus fight to containing its spread.

The 231 additional cases of the new coronavirus brought the total number of infections in South Korea to 833. 

The two latest victims of the potentially fatal illness are tied to Daenam Hospital in Cheongdo, near Daegu. Six out of the eight deaths here are linked to the hospital where over 110 people were confirmed to have been infected.

Daegu, where 2.5 million people have been asked to stay indoors, saw its confirmed cases jump by 196 to 483 on Monday, despite efforts to stem the spread of the virus, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the number of infected and the 8 deaths show just under a 1% fatality rate with this virus so far.

It is interesting that the Korean government is delaying the school term across the country, but are still allowing in 70,000 Chinese college students:

South Korea said Sunday it will postpone the new school year, set to start next month, as part of efforts to tackle the new coronavirus after the number of patients spiked to more than 600.

“To prevent the spread of infection, and for the safety of students and school faculty, the education ministry will postpone the first day of the 2020 school year at kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools across the country by a week,” Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said in a government press briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The news is getting worse out of South Korea in regards to the spread of the coronavirus:

Four more fatalities from the new coronavirus were reported in Korea over the weekend, bringing the total death toll to six as infections skyrocketed to 602.

The Korean government elevated its official alert level for the coronavirus on Sunday to “red,” the highest in its four-tier system, in a meeting presided over by President Moon Jae-in and pledged to mobilize all resources to subdue the outbreak.

Infections remain heavily concentrated in a single city, Daegu, and the surrounding province of North Gyeongsang, with 495, or 82.2 percent of the total. Four of the six deaths are linked to Daenam Hospital in North Gyeongsang’s Cheongdo County, where nearly 110 other people including medical staff have contracted the disease.

A 40-year-old man in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, who died Friday posthumously tested positive for the coronavirus Saturday, officials from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.

A 57-year-old man who was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of Daenam Hospital before being recently transferred to Dongguk University Gyeongju Hospital in Gyeongju died Sunday morning. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

As I predicted church services in South Korea are now being effected by the spread of the coronavirus linked to a church in Daegu:

Consequently, South Korean religious communities have been seeking preventive measures as there have been growing fears about religious events in large churches and temples that can become a focal point of infections.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Daegu has suspended all Masses held by churches, institutions and schools in the diocese for two weeks until March 5.

It is the first time that a Catholic diocese has decided not to hold Masses since the first outbreak was reported in South Korea on Jan. 20.

A church in central Seoul was closed for about two weeks earlier this month as one of its believers was confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus.

However, few Protestant and Catholic churches or Buddhist temples have actually rescheduled or reduced their services or events despite the rapid spread of the virus.

Yonhap

If people are avoiding cramped churches it seems then that sporting venues will next be avoided by Koreans.

There has unfortunately been another coronavirus fatality in Korea:

South Korea reported the nation’s second death from the new coronavirus, with the number of confirmed cases surpassing 200, officials said Friday.

The woman in her 50s died at a hospital in the southeastern city of Busan after being transferred from a hospital in a nearby county, where the nation’s first COVID-19 fatality was reported the previous day. She was confirmed to be infected and moved to Busan earlier Friday.

Yonhap

Too make things even worse the virus is now spreading at epidemic levels in South Korea with over 200 people now infected.

Right now the Moon administration will likely not take this medical advice because the political calculations are currently taking precedent. However, if the coronavirus continues to have more huge outbreaks like we saw in Daegu that may change those calculations:

Medical experts and university officials called on the government Wednesday to ban Chinese students from entering Korea amid mounting fears that they could bring the coronavirus with them.

The Korea Medical Association (KMA), the nation’s largest doctors group, which has been calling for the controversial entry ban, stepped up its calls after the health authorities confirmed 15 more cases of COVID-19 Wednesday. It said the contagious virus has been spreading rapidly in local communities.

Universities are also struggling to find ways of managing their Chinese students as nearly 70,000 students are set to return to South Korea for the spring semester. Although health authorities and the Ministry of Education announced a series of initiatives to better manage and prevent the possible spread of the novel virus, the KMA said that restrictions on entry from China is the most urgent action from the government needed right now.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.