How did Korea correspond to Covid-19 pandemic?

The Covid-19 pandemic took the global world by surprise. It causes devastation by taking away so many lives as well as forcing everyone to take a huge 2 year pause on life. If you were to look back at each country’s first response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country that was written about the most in regard to having a good response was the Republic of Korea. Korea got much praise from fellow countries for their impressive response to the pandemic.

 

They were able to manage outbreaks in March and August due to many reasons. Korea is a collective society versus many other countries who are individualistic. This collectivism allows for a greater sense of individual responsibility to one’s community. The next thing is how advanced their public health system is. They were able to not only detect efficiently but contain and treat cases. They were able to set up advanced data analytics to create a large site of contact tracing. This also gave them access to personal data on those affected such as mobile phone location as well as those with whom they had contact with quickly. They also have about 600 screening facilities and testing facilities paired with 150 diagnostic laboratories. In terms of containment, they do the isolation techniques of those affected but, paired with the tracing efforts through phone, credit card, or television footage, they are able to quarantine people much faster than other countries. They also have a set quarantine period for those coming into the country where you must stay at a government facility for two weeks. the rules are strict and not only are there tracking apps but also safety bands if they break quarantine.             All these efforts that were successfully implemented were due to the government reforms to boost public health emergency preparedness.

 

The country is so close to China where the original outbreak began; however, they have managed to protect their citizens during this health crisis. This is by no means without struggles from health care workers, lack of PPE, and the sad loss of life. As a country, they have shown how certain investments(public healthcare system infrastructure), preparedness, and data-driven leadership can all contribute to a significantly lower number of cases in comparison to other countries.

 

 

Written by: Samantha Garcia. From New York , United States . Current 4th year student at John Jay college of Criminal Justice .Pursing an International Criminal Justice B.A and a minor in Psychology. Intern at VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea)