Lessons to be learnt from South Korea

The Global circumstances are right now one of the worst in history. The world is fighting hard against the COVID-19 pandemic. While countries like Italy, Spain, France, the USA, Britain, etc. are looking clueless in front of the deadly outbreak of coronavirus, South Korea has been fighting for long and for the last one month, the curve has completely flattened there.

A healthy decrease in the new cases seen

The interesting thing is that South Korea didn't impose the lockdown like other countries did. They didn't shut everything down. Instead, they made tactical decisions regarding schools, and sensible decision for other sectors also.

The WHO head for the emergency program said that the way wide testing has been done in South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong they were able to decrease the number of new cases quite comfortably. But Hong Kong and Singapore are seeing the second wave of the pandemic, while South Korea is quite stable.

MERS OUTBREAK IN SOUTH KOREA 2015

South Korea was hit by MERS(Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), a virus that originated in Saudi Arabia in 2012. There were other countries also hit by this virus. South Korea recorded 186 cases of MERS with 38 deaths.

It was really hard for the country to deal with it because the outbreak exposed the weakness of the nation's medical system against a sudden pandemic. This was a wake-up call for the South Korean government to improve in their medical system as soon as possible.

They started investment in controlling infectious diseases. Also, they prepared their medical teams to fight against the medical crisis that was likely to happen in the future.

SOUTH KOREA'S ACTIONS

Technical aspect      

The government regularly communicated and still communicating the number of infected people in a geographical area. The national, as well as local government websites, were updated regularly with correct information. Communication is the key to inform people in order to reduce panic among them.

Smartphone apps were provided so that people can get updated if their local area is infected by the virus. The protocols regarding social distancing, personal hygiene, etc. were communicated via text.

It is interesting that not only medical but also the technical sector of the country came forward and helped the nation to tackle the virus. The coronavirus 119 app helps the patients who are having symptoms of cold, cough, or pneumonia to connect with the doctor and get an early diagnosis.

There are self-quarantine apps designed in order to do two tasks:

1. Monitor the condition of the patient.
2. Alarm system if the patient goes out of the designated area.

There was an app introduced by the government that checks the symptoms of travelers coming into the country and gives them medical precautions.

The Prime minister of France and President of Sweden also asked for the procedures from the South Korean president Moon Jae-in to fight the coronavirus.

South Korea also used data from credit card transactions and cellphones to find out the social connections of the suspect. These details trace out the people who came in contact with the suspect. 

Medical aspect

South Korea implemented large scale testing urgently and that resulted in the test of more than 3,00,000 people be the end of March 20.

It has seen a spike in the new cases in mid-February but since February 29, the number of new cases started decreasing and the things looked to come under control.

The Foreign minister of the country said that testing is key because it would help in the initial detection and decreases the further spread of the disease. Aggressive testing was carried out and the suspected who are either seriously or mildly ill were hospitalized. Their near ones were quarantined.

The result was seen when the recovery rate increased and the mortality rate was negligible in front of the world's figures. Right now there are around 11000 total cases and 240 deaths recorded. The government decided to slowly permit removal of the lockdown being followed in South Korea. 

CONCLUSION

South Korea controlled the coronavirus even when the lockdown was not that strict, and ready to control if the second wave hits. We can understand that our country India is a densely populated and lockdown is extremely important.

But India is hit by pandemic many times in the past. Nipah virus outbreak in Kerela, Swine flu, a disease spread from lichi that killed hundreds of children in Bihar, etc. are survived and fought by us. But still, we were unable to take any lessons from them like South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong did.

Kerela was quite successful in its approach. But its time for the whole country to step up. There are lessons that the South Korean approach can teach us and can be implemented by India to some extent.    

Thanks for reading.