Tag: South Korea

The way I look at this, is that this could have just as easily happened in any nightclub in Seoul with how contagious this disease is:

The LGBTQ community in South Korea fears a rise in discrimination after a reported new spike in coronavirus cases was linked to a man who attended night clubs in Seoul’s gay district and later tested positive for the disease.

As of Saturday, May 9, South Korea confirmed 18 new coronavirus cases — the first time in five days that the number jumped above 10. Most of the cases originated in the popular Itaewon district in Seoul, where a 29-year-old man visited three nightclubs before testing positive for the virus.

The man tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, May 7, while an additional 14 people with who he had contact were also infected on Friday.

The 29-year-old could have also infected an estimated 2,000 people after he also walked around Seoul and other neighboring provinces, including Gyeonggi and Gangwon, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said, according to Reuters.

Business Insider

You can read more at the link.

Another step towards normalcy in South Korea:

The government has decided to further loosen its guidelines on social distancing, beginning Wednesday, amid clear signs of a slowdown in the number of new COVID-19 infections here, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Sunday.

Under its “Distancing in daily life” plan, the government will allow the phased reopening of facilities that have been shut down amid the coronavirus outbreak, Chung said. 

The government will also allow meetings and events to be held as long as participants abide by some basic quarantine guidelines. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The ROK government plans to stimulate the economy by giving additional money to pensioners and those on disability:

The government began offering emergency disaster relief funds to some 2.8 million households, Monday, as part of efforts to minimize the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic by boosting consumption, according to the Ministry of Interior and Safety.

Eligible households include those living off the government’s livelihood support, the basic pension or disability programs.

Those households can receive cash payouts up to 1 million won ($816) without going through a separate application process.

The amount depends on the number of family members ― 400,000 won for single-person households, 600,000 won for two-member households, 800,000 won for three-member households and 1 million won for households with four or more family members.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This month South Korean children will be heading back to school as early as May 13th:

South Korea on Monday announced plans to reopen schools starting next week, more than two months after schools were closed in a precautionary measure against the new coronavirus that has infected more than 10,000 here.

“Starting on May 20, which is two weeks after key holidays in May, we will push to (reopen schools) in a phased and sequential process,” Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said at a press briefing.

Under the plan, high school seniors will return to school on May 13, while other grades will return to school gradually in the following weeks.

Students in grade 2 of high school, grade 3 of middle school and grades 1 and 2 in elementary schools will return on May 20, while those in grade 1 of high school, grade 2 of middle school and grades 3 and 4 in elementary schools will go back on May 27. Students in grade 1 of middle school and grades 5 and 6 in elementary school will return on June 1.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

What the Korea Centers for Disease Control is essentially saying is that the coronavirus detection kit was faulty and that is why it is showing reinfections:

Some coronavirus patients in Korea who tested positive for Covid-19 after recovery — sparking alarm about possible reinfections — probably did so because the country’s sensitive testing procedure detected “dead” virus fragments within their bodies.

A clinical committee for new infectious diseases within the state-backed National Medical Center said Wednesday in a press briefing that there was a low chance that those people were actually reinfected with Covid-19 and said the country’s RT-PCR testing method seemed to have confused a dead virus fragment with an active one.  

Fears of reinfection arose after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported cases of recovered patients testing positive for Covid-19 again. By Monday, there were at least 277 people who fell into that category.   

You can read more at the link.

This is quite a tragedy that happened in Icheon:

Police on Thursday strived to identify some of the 38 construction workers killed in a warehouse fire in Icheon, south of Seoul, after wrapping up a search and rescue operation in one of the country’s deadliest blazes in years. 

The fire, which injured 10 others, two of them seriously, engulfed a four-story building under construction in Icheon, 50 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Wednesday afternoon and was put out five hours later.

Yonhap

Here is what President Moon had to say:

President Moon Jae-in voiced regret that another massive fire had taken place despite government safety measures put in place following fatal fires in 2017 and 2018. A fire at a sports center in Jecheon killed 29 people and injured 40 others in December 2017, and another occurred in Miryang, killing 45 and injuring 147 only a month later in 2018. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I do find it interesting how moderate the media coverage of a major mass casualty death like this is getting.

This will be a big step reopen schools, not so much for the students who really aren’t effected by the coronavirus, but the teachers and family members they may spread the virus to:

The government appears to be in a dilemma over whether to resume normal classes at schools, according to education officials Tuesday, as the number of new coronavirus infections has been on a downward trend.

Officials want to open schools as quickly as possible and return teachers and students to classrooms. But at the same time, they are equally concerned that if they open the schools too soon, they could become a hotbed for the highly contagious virus as students come into contact with one another.

As the number of newly confirmed daily cases of COVID-19 has stayed around 15 or less for 10 consecutive days, many educators, teachers and students expect to see schools resuming normal classes. Schools have been closed since March 2, when the new school semester was originally scheduled to commence.

The Ministry of Education said Tuesday that it had held a videoconference with local education superintendents to come up with a detailed plan for any reopening. During the conference, Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae and the 17 regional superintendents discussed how to resume normal classes while preventing them from becoming hotbeds for the coronavirus. 

A decision is expected between May 3 and 5, after the government decides whether to further ease social distancing next week.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

What I find of interest from President Moon’s plan is that the government is not going to fund major infrastructure projects but instead digital projects and small neighborhood projects:

President Moon Jae-in proclaimed a “Korean New Deal” on Wednesday to create jobs in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.  

He also announced that the government plans to give 1.5 million won ($1,200) to people who lost their jobs but aren’t covered by employment insurance, which has never been done before.

Preventing layoffs and creating jobs have become the top priority of the government with job losses hitting their highest numbers in a decade.  

During the government’s fifth economic emergency council meeting on Wednesday, Moon promised a Korean New Deal.  

“New Deal jobs should not be temporary positions but innovative growth projects that will continue through the post-Covid-19 era,” Moon said. 

“The government has to boldly push forward major projects that would create new jobs.”  

According to Finance Minster Hong Nam-ki, the Korean New Deal projects will be digital, have jobs that don’t have much face-to-face contacts and also include small neighborhood public projects.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.