Comparison of the second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea: Importance of early public health intervention

Abstract

Objectives We aimed to compare epidemiologic features of second and third COVID-19 pandemic waves in South Korea. Methods Nationwide COVID-19 data was collected during the study period (May 6–December 30). The degree of social activities was also estimated using the internet searching trend analysis program for leisure-related keywords including “eating-out,” “trip,” and “get directions” (transportation). We compared the demographics, transmission chains, case fatality rates, social activity level, and public health responses between second (August 13–September 18) and third (November 4–present) waves. Results Compared to the second wave, the third wave was characterized by delayed social distancing reinforcement (3 vs. 15 days), longer duration (36 vs. > 56 days) and higher fatality rates (0.91% vs. 1.26%). There was a significant difference in transmission chains of the second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic (p < 0.01). During the third wave compared with the second wave, the proportion of local clusters (24.8% vs. 45.7%) was lower, while those of personal contact transmission (38.5% vs. 25.9%) and unknown routes of transmission (23.5% vs. 20.8%) were higher. Conclusion Early and timely interventions with strengthened social distancing policies should be implemented to effectively suppress and control the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effective public health measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review

“…The characteristics of the included studies and the main results were summarized Table 1 including the following items: authors, country, study design, objective, methods and main outcomes. For the quality assessment results the quality of 14 (77.77%) included studies [ 14 – 16 , 19 – 21 , 23 – 29 , 31 ] was moderate, the quality of two studies [ 18 , 22 ] was strong and the quality was weak for the two remaining studies [ 17 , 30 ] (Table 2 ). As for the results of the level of evidence and grade of recommendation assessment, six studies had low level of evidence and low grade of recommendation [ 16 , 17 , 19 , 21 , 24 , 30 ].…”

“…For the quality assessment results the quality of 14 (77.77%) included studies [ 14 – 16 , 19 – 21 , 23 – 29 , 31 ] was moderate, the quality of two studies [ 18 , 22 ] was strong and the quality was weak for the two remaining studies [ 17 , 30 ] (Table 2 ). As for the results of the level of evidence and grade of recommendation assessment, six studies had low level of evidence and low grade of recommendation [ 16 , 17 , 19 , 21 , 24 , 30 ]. Ten studies had moderate level of evidence and low grade of recommendation [ 14 , 15 , 20 , 22 , 23 , 25 – 29 ], one study had moderate level of evidence and moderate grade of recommendation [ 18 ] and only one study had high level of evidence and high grade of recommendation [ 31 ] (Table 3 ).…”

“…However after increasing awareness and wider use of personal protective equipment adding to hospital-level prevention and management in parallel with the implementation of strong public heath interventions the rate of confirmed cases quickly decreased and furthermore no new case were reported among local health workers which prove that protecting heath care workers is an important measure in controlling an outbreak of a high transmissible infectious disease. Finally Zeng K et al [ 26 ] and Seong H et al [ 21 ] suggested that early community mask wearing and timely border control interventions using modern digital tools in addition to early and timely measures with strengthened social distancing interventions should be implemented to suppress and control the COVID-19 pandemic effectively.

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“…The growth rate of daily confirmed-cases at the time of promulgating the social distancing measures partly influences the decline rates of daily confirmed-cases after the spread reached its peak. Seong H et al [ 21 ] , South Korea Cohort Study Compare the epidemiologic features of the second and third waves of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in South Korea. COVID-19 data were collected between 6 May and 30 December 2020.…”

The second and third waves in India: when will the pandemic be culminated?

“…This requires following the course of the pandemic to have the option to anticipate its rise for a superior reaction. In order to predict the dynamics of virus spread, numerous research works on COVID-19 have recently been proposed [ 13 – 19 ]. The dynamic evolution of the virus spread during the first wave as well as the second wave is investigated by SIR model (see [ 20 – 25 ]).…”