Tag: South Korea

Dr. Tara O makes a very compelling case that the international media should be looking at Taiwan as a great example of what to do to combat COVID-19 instead of South Korea:

Taiwan recognized the threat early on and rapidly began to take measures.  It inspected and screened travelers from Wuhan, the epicenter of the SARS CoV-2, as early as December 31, 2019.  It also actively monitored travelers from Wuhan who had already entered Taiwan on December 20, 2019 and onwards.  It had developed screening, testing, and quarantine protocols early based on lessons from the SARS 2003 outbreak.  It also engaged in aggressive contact tracing to ensure everyone that came into contact with an infected person was quarantined and tested.  On February 6, 2020, Taiwan banned travel from China.

Unlike Taiwan, South Korea never banned travel from China, although the Korean Medical Association (KMA) and the public called for such measures multiple times.  South Korea eventually restricted travel from Wuhan on February 2, 2020, but it was not until after China had already quarantined the City of Wuhan on January 23, 2020.  KMA, on February 3, made its fifth request to the government to ban entry from China, saying South Korea is losing its “golden time” of prevention, and it will become “regional spreads.” KMA also highlighted inadequate tracking of visitors from China.  KMA’s concerns and the government’s inadequate tracing are not reflected in foreign reports that praise South Korea’s tracing.

On January 31, 2020, 11,345 people traveled from China to South Korea.  Multiplying by 30 days, that would be more than 340,350 people in one month.  If 1% were infected with the coronavirus, that would be 3,403 infected people entering South Korea.

East Asia Research Center

I highly recommend reading the rest at the link.

What I think Dr. O is getting after is that the international media has been heaping great praise on President Moon’s response to COVID-19 without mentioning his administration’s previous missteps which also included lack of masks and testing. Even the testing today there is misinformation in the international media about free testing in South Korea, but don’t mention that a sick person needs to have a CT Scan or an X-ray done before a coronavirus test can be conducted. The cost of the CT scan and X-ray could dissuade people from getting tested.

The only reason why I can think of that the international media isn’t instead lavishing praise on Taiwan is because they don’t want to deal with the backlash from China. So the Moon administration has become a better example to damage the Trump administration with. Pointing out the Moon administration’s failings does not help with that goal and thus why they only focus on things that the Moon administration has done right.

Anyone else have any alternate theories on why the international media is not focusing on what the Moon administration has done wrong?

For any foreigner that wants to get easily tested for COVID-19 head on over to the Seoul Sports Complex. The article says it takes about 15 minutes to get tested:

A walkthrough virus screening center for overseas entrants opened at a major sports complex in southeastern Seoul on Friday amid a continued increase in imported cases.

The screening center, which Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon claimed could test up to 1,000 people per day, was set up at Seoul Sports Complex, the site of the 1986 Asian Games and 1988 Summer Olympics.

On the first day of operation, the screening venue appeared mostly quiet, with around 10 people visiting during a two-hour slot.

Visitors said they came to the walkthrough to be tested promptly.

“I arrived (in South Korea) on Thursday and have been taking a language course in San Diego,” said a 23-year-old who lives in the northeastern ward of Nowon. “I was told that it would take some time for me to be tested at the Nowon health center, which is why I came here.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the article says that 169 of the 500 cases in Seoul were from overseas travelers.

Here are the latest coronavirus infection stats out of South Korea:

South Korea reported 94 more cases of new coronavirus infections Saturday, one day after its total breached the 10,000 mark.

The 94 additional cases put the total at 10,156, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The country’s death toll came to 177, with three more coronavirus deaths added Friday.

More than half of all fatalities here so far have involved patients aged 80 years or older, according to the KCDC.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but with 10,156 infections and 177 deaths that means the mortality rate is at 1.7%, but is probably at least half that with all the people infected that don’t know about it.

It seems this was bound to happen:

 South Korea will begin the new school year with online classes on April 9 following repeated delays due to the novel coronavirus, the prime minister said Tuesday.

The unprecedented move to introduce online classes will be applied step by step at schools, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said, without elaborating.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This unhappiness is because of the lax standards the Korean government has with Chinese entering South Korea compared to Chinese regional governments putting Koreans going to China in mandatory 14-day quarantines:

Public chagrin is growing over some Chinese provincial authorities’ forcible anti-coronavirus quarantine measures against South Koreans, fueling criticism of Seoul’s cautious immigration controls and strengthening calls for broader entry bans on Chinese visitors.

Despite Seoul’s entry ban limited only to China’s central Hubei Province at the center of the new coronavirus outbreaks, Weihai in the eastern Shandong Province and other regions have enforced unannounced quarantine steps against visitors from South Korea.

The measures came after Seoul embraced Beijing’s calls for a “scientific” decision in line with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendations against unnecessary travel restrictions and sent protective masks, goggles and other relief items to China in a show of unity in the fight against the virus outbreaks.

The containment move raised questions over Seoul’s hitherto cautious approach in dealing with Chinese travelers in the midst of a recent spike in the number of COVID-19 infections in South Korea, which has risen to 1,146.

“China has been consistent in its claim that travel restrictions should be made based on scientific grounds and WHO recommendations, while decrying strict entry restrictions by the United States and other countries,” Park Won-gon, professor of international politics at Handong Global University, said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the only thing I am surprised about is that people are surprised by the Chinese government’s duplicity on this issue.

Here is another article about foreigners spreading the coronavirus:

Another foreigner has been caught ignoring the self-isolation rules that are being implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus. 

Busan City said Sunday a German student, 25, had ignored the instruction after entering the country on March 20. The student, enrolled at Pusan National University, is being treated at the school’s hospital after testing positive for coronavirus on March 28. 

The student, whose identity was withheld, entered the country through Gimhae International Airport on March 20, without symptoms of coronavirus infection. Before coming to Korea, he briefly visited the United States and Japan, according to the city. 

Despite being devoid of suspicious symptoms, he was subject to mandatory two-week self-isolation in his dorm room. But he ignored this. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It looks like soon Americans will begin getting tested with Korean made coronavirus test kits though there appears to be some confusion of when the approval will officially be given:

The foreign ministry reconfirmed Monday that three South Korean coronavirus test kits can be exported to the United States as they were given pre-emergency use authorization numbers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

On Saturday, the foreign ministry issued a press release that the three unidentified companies have gained preapproval in the FDA’s emergency use authorization (EUA) process and that their diagnostic devices can be sold in the U.S. market.

But the announcement created confusion as it turned out that none of the test kit manufacturers that applied for EUA approval knew about the authorization. Some newspapers accused the ministry of making the announcement in a hurried manner to show it is the result of President Moon Jae-in’s diplomacy toward the U.S.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.