Tag: South Korea

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.

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.

I think the Korean left actually enjoys the fact that Shimane prefecture has had an annual Takeshima Day since 2005 just so they have an excuse to vent their anti-Japanese sentiment:

South Korea lodged a strong protest Saturday against Japan’s renewed claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Seoul’s foreign ministry called in Hirohisa Soma, a senior official at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, and expressed regret over Japan’s annual event meant to publicize its territorial claim to Dokdo.

“We again sternly urged Japan to immediately repeal” its event on Dokdo, the ministry said in a statement.

The protest came hours after the Japanese prefecture of Shimane held the Takeshima Day event and a senior Japanese government official attended the ceremony. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Koreans should just ignore this stupidity from a backwater Japanese prefecture, but it is too much red meat for the Korean left wing base to ignore especially before April’s parliamentary elections.

I do have to give the Korean left credit because they have at least toned down their annual response to Takeshima Day. I can remember the good old days of the Great Dokdo War.  I can still remember the hard days when those of us in Korea had to stock up on food and supplies to survive the initial declaration of war from President Roh Moo-hyun.  We made it through multiple cease fires, close calls, and even the failure of the Daemado campaign.  

Times had been so desperate there was even talk about recruiting North Korea to fight off the evil Japanese Imperialists.  Though the casualties on the Korean side have been heavy at times, through it all the brave defenders of Dokdo have continued thwart the massive Japanese armada descending on the islet.  

We were also treated back then to such Korean patriots like Flag Eater Man, Chung Dong-young, the Finger Chopping Lady, the Knife in the Gut Man, Weed Killer Man, the Dokdo Riders, and most importantly that great general of all things Dokdo, Bee-Man.  Sorry Korean Democratic Party, you have nothing on these great defenders of Dokdo.

The Prime Minister’s message here is making me wonder if they are going to use the coronavirus as an excuse to crackdown on rallies against the ruling government? :

 South Korea’s prime minister called the fast spread of the new coronavirus in the country a “grave” situation on Saturday and urged people to refrain from holding religious events in crowded places.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun issued a special public message to seek the people’s cooperation with the government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Chung urged people to refrain from holding religious events in crowded places and to devise other ways to carry them out.

“In accordance with law and principles, the government will sternly deal with acts that interfere with quarantine efforts, illegal hoarding of medical goods and acts that spark uneasiness through massive rallies,” Chung said in the nationally televised message.

Yonhap

If PM Chung is so concerned about religious services and massive rallies why doesn’t he ban all sporting events then? Better yet shouldn’t he be closing down all the subways and buses in Seoul as well where far many more people use every day than go to an anti-government rally.

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.

Anyone surprised that the Moon administration is blaming the poor Korean economy on the coronavirus? They are basically arguing that the Korean economy was on the verge of turning around until the coronavirus hit:

President Moon Jae-in ordered his cabinet on Tuesday to mobilize all available “special” means to handle the “emergency economic situations” attributable to the continued spread of the new coronavirus.

“Emergency situations require an emergency prescription. The current situation is much more serious than [we] thought,” Moon said during his opening remarks during a weekly cabinet meeting at the Blue House. “It is the time when special measures are absolutely necessary to use every possible means that the government can mobilize.”

Moon’s call reflects his resolve to minimize the epidemic’s impact on the Korean economy, which the government said was on the cusp of revival starting in the last quarter of 2019.

“This is not enough,” he added. “In order to respond to the emergency economic situations, I want you to exert policy-related imagination that goes beyond expectations with no restrictions.”

He cited the expansion of tax incentives and regulatory reform to promote corporate investment, special financial support for small- and medium-sized firms and measures to relieve tiny shop owners of rent burdens.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This shows the power of the taxi unions in South Korea when competitors face being thrown in jail by taking them on:

This week is being cast as the do-or-die moment for Korean mobility services – ride sharing, van hailing and the like. It is also seen as an inflection point for the sharing economy, and more generally for innovation. 

On Monday, the National Assembly will begin discussing revisions to the transportation law that could render Tada all but illegal. It has become known as the “Tada Ban Law.”  

Another decision awaits the van-hailing service, with the Seoul Central District Court scheduled to announce its decision on Tada’s legality on Wednesday. 

Prosecutors are calling for one-year sentences for Lee Jae-woong, the CEO of Socar, and Park Jae-wook, the CEO of Tada operator VCNC, for violating the existing motor vehicle law. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is pretty concerning that doctors currently do not know how the latest Korean to contract the coronavirus became infected with it:

The 30th case of the new coronavirus in Korea was confirmed Monday as the wife of Patient No. 29, an 82-year-old Korean man who had been volunteering with low-income senior citizens and spent days visiting several medical clinics and pharmacies before his diagnosis.  

Patient No. 30, a 68-year-old Korean woman, tested positive for the virus the previous day, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). Her husband, Patient No. 29, who had not traveled overseas in recent months nor come into contact with any known coronavirus patients, was confirmed as having tested positive for the new coronavirus earlier Sunday.  

How the elderly couple, who are residents of Jongno District, central Seoul, contracted the virus is still unclear. Authorities are scrambling to trace all the people they came in contact with in the past two weeks amid heightened concerns of secondary and tertiary infections.  

Patient No. 29 had a pre-existing heart condition and visited two different local clinics and two pharmacies prior to going to Korea University Anam Hospital’s emergency room in Seongbuk District, central Seoul, Saturday morning, with complaints of chest pains. The doctor there discovered through a CT scan that the man had symptoms of pneumonia and tested him for the coronavirus. The couple is being treated at Seoul National University Hospital in central Seoul, one of the state-designated facilities for the virus, officially called Covid-19, since Sunday, and they are both in a stable condition with mild fevers. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but if they cannot put this man in proximity of other coronavirus patients that likely means there are people infected in Seoul with the virus that don’t know it.