COVID-19: South Korea’s Success in Controlling the Disease

Initially one of the hardest hit with the second-highest number of cases globally, South Korea arguably provides the best models when it comes to stopping outbreaks. Not only did Korea managed to curb the spread and have cases slowed to just over 10,000, but its impressive management of the outbreak and spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 has been widely praised in the international community and became a model to emulate for other countries. 

The country of 50 million appears to have greatly slowed its epidemic; it reported around 11 new cases yesterday, 22nd of April, down from 909 at its peak on 29 February. And it has done so without taking too drastic measures, such as locking down entire cities or closing borders to bring its epidemic under control. “South Korea is a democratic republic, we feel a lock-down is not a reasonable choice,” says Kim Woo-Joo, an infectious disease specialist at Korea University.

Behind its success so far has been the most expansive and well-organized testing program in the world, combined with extensive efforts to isolate infected people and trace and quarantine their contacts. South Korea has tested more than 500,000 people, which amounts to more than 10,000 tests per million inhabitants. These factors enable the country to carry out 15,000 tests per day, making it second only to China in absolute numbers and third in the world for per person testing. 

The country has learned from the 2015 outbreak of MERS and reorganized its disease control system. It has a good, large-capacity healthcare system and a sophisticated biotech industry that can produce test kits quickly.

The strategy of simply testing, testing and testing some more, curtailed the outbreak and kept many businesses and factories open. One could argue that this was successful because South Korea is one of the few countries where the COVID-19 outbreak hasn’t caused panic buying in supermarkets and that in fact, information exposure can prevent the need for a lock-down of individuals’ movements.

LESSONS FROM MERS

As mentioned above, South Korea learned the importance of preparedness the hard way. In 2015, a South Korean businessman came down with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) after returning from a visit to three Middle Eastern countries. He was treated at three South Korean health facilities before he was diagnosed with MERS and isolated. By then, he had set off a chain of transmission that infected 186 and killed 36, including many patients hospitalized for other ailments, visitors, and hospital staff. Tracing, testing, and quarantining nearly 17,000 people quashed the outbreak after 2 months. The specter of a runaway epidemic alarmed the nation and dented the economy.

Experts argue that the MERS experience certainly helped Korea to improve hospital infection prevention and control and it showed that laboratory testing is essential to control an emerging infectious disease.

After the novel coronavirus emerged in China, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) raced to develop its tests and cooperated with diagnostic manufacturers to develop commercial test kits. The first test was approved on 7 February, when the country had just a few cases, and distributed to regional health centers. 

The national testing capacity has reached a staggering 15,000 tests per day. There are 43 drive-through testing stations nationwide, a concept now copied in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

NEW NORMAL

Fearing the potential for a “second wave” of infections, Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged “everyone to continue to follow social distancing and personal hygiene guidelines during the weekend.” “We cannot put our guard down yet as there are still potential for high rate of infections,” Vice Health Minister Kim Ganglip said in a televised briefing Saturday morning. “We believe that we need to continue social distancing and not loosen it up.” 

In the meanwhile, Kim said South Korea’s government is drafting guidelines for a return to a “new normal,” including modifying quarantine procedures and social distancing measures. “Our society has been successfully delaying the spread of Covid-19 virus through social distancing,’ he said. “But that does not mean that the virus disappears completely or we are able to return to life we had led before the outbreak.”

People walk through the Garosu-gil neighborhood of the Gangnam district of Seoul, South Korea, on April 18. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Sources:                               

1. (Bloomberg, Seoul’s Full Cafes, Apple Store Lines Show Mass Testing Success)

2. www.cdc.go.kr/board/ Press Release,  Updates on COVID-19 in Republic of Korea

3. (The Conversation, Coronavirus: South Korea’s success in controlling disease is due to its acceptance of surveillance)

4. (NYTimes, How South Korea Flattened the Curve)

5. (Science Mag.org, Coronavirus cases have dropped sharply in South Korea. What’s the secret to its success?)