South Korea's responses to stop the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Highlights Aggressive responses to COVID-19 were successful in controlling an initial peak Korea's government reformed the epidemic preparedness system after MERS in 2015. Expanding rapid tests, case tracking/isolation, and information sharing were key. Hospitals set up selective clinics and safe clinics outside for patient screening. Hospitals modified personal protective equipment use and health care personnel report related symptoms daily.

New Zealand's COVID‐19 elimination strategy

“…6 There was also strong evidence for early success of the elimination approach in Taiwan, 7 Hong Kong 8 and South Korea. 9 The concept of elimination is well known to infectious disease epidemiologists. 10 It refers to the reduction of the incidence of a disease to zero in a defined geographical area.…”

South Korean Hurry-Hurry (빨리 빨리) COVID-19 Strategy: Privacy Concern, No-Lockdown, and Discriminations

“…When the MERS outbreak happened, the then-conservative government withheld some vital information about the epidemiological tracing from the public for fear of the economic fallout. Learning from these experiences, the government reformed Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and introduced a new law on technology-based tracing (Kang et al 2020). Acknowledging that an outbreak can potentially happen in the country, the Korean government and KCDC even held a pandemic simulation to measure its severity and formulate a suitable response for it as early as December 2019 .…”

“…As the locations of confirmed patients are announced, whoever happened to be around the patients at the same time can request to get tested. Lastly, the confirmed patient would be treated at the hospital for free (Kang et al 2020). The government of all levels swiftly began a massive testing program that tests and treats all potential patients based on contact-tracing results.…”

“…In normal conditions, masks (KF80 and KF94) can easily be found anywhere in the country. In order to solve this problem, in late March, the government bought the remaining supply and implemented a ration system (2 masks per person) for the public based on the birth years (Kang et al 2020). The mask-rationing is decided based on the subscription to National Health Insurance (NHI), to which 1.2 million foreigners are not enrolled in .…”

Association Between Dementia and Clinical Outcome After COVID-19: A Nationwide Cohort Study with Propensity Score Matched Control in South Korea

“…Korea Disease Control & Prevention Agency (KDCA), a public organization under the South Korean Ministry of Welfare and Health, is responsible for performing defense and monitoring activities to contain and prevent COVID-19 27 . All patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 received mandatory and complimentary care either at a hospital or a medical facility 28 . While patients received medical care, the KDCA was able to collect all medical data related to diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.…”