COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea

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Counties and cities of South Korea affected by SARS-CoV-2 infections (confirmed infections): 1 - 9 10 - 99 100 - 499 500 - 999 1000 - 4999





The COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea is part of the global COVID-19 pandemic originating from China . The first case in South Korea became known on January 20, 2020.

background

The COVID-19 pandemic began in the People's Republic of China in December 2019 . The novel respiratory disease COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the Coronaviridae group . On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the event as a global pandemic .

development

Cumulative Confirmed Infections in South Korea
Day    January   February      March      April        May       June       July  August      Sept
01. 12 3736 9887 10774 11503 12850 14336 20192
02. 15th 4212 9976 10780 11541 12904 14366
03. 4812 10062 10793 11590 12967 14389
04. 16 5328 10156 10801 11629 13030 14423
05. 19th 5766 10237 10804 11668 13091 14456
06. 23 6284 10284 10806 11719 13137 14499
07. 24 6767 10331 10810 11776 13181 14519
08. 7134 10384 10822 11814 13243 14562
09 25th 7382 10423 10840 11852 13293 14598
10. 7513 10450 10874 11902 13338 14626
11. 28 7755 10480 10909 11947 13373 14660
12. 7869 10512 10936 12002 13417 14714
13. 7979 10537 10962 12051 13479 14770
14th 8086 10564 10991 12084 13512 14873
15th 8162 10591 11018 12121 13551 15039
16. 8236 10613 11037 12155 13612 15318
17th 8320 10635 11050 12198 13672 15515
18th 31 8413 10653 11065 12257 13711 15761
19th 51 8565 10661 11078 12306 13745 16058
20th 1 104 8652 10674 11110 12373 13771 16346
21st 204 8799 10683 11122 12421 13816 16670
22nd 433 8897 10694 11142 12438 13879 17002
23. 602 8961 10702 11165 12484 13938 17399
24. 2 833 9037 10708 11190 12535 13979 17655
25th 977 9137 10718 11206 12563 14092 17945
26th 3 1261 9241 10728 11225 12602 14150 18265
27. 4th 1766 9332 10738 11265 12653 14175 18706
28. 2337 9478 10752 11344 12715 14203 19077
29 3150 9583 10761 11402 12757 14251 19400
30th 6th - 9661 10765 11441 12799 14269 19699
31. 11 - 9786 - 11468 - 14305 19947 -

After the Chinese authorities reported the outbreak of a series of pneumonia in the city of Wuhan with a previously unknown infectious cause to the World Health Organization on December 31, 2019 , appropriate precautionary measures were taken in South Korea. From January 3, 2020, special entry regulations and quarantine measures applied to travelers from Wuhan. The public was also informed of the problem by government agencies.

The first case of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in South Korea became known on January 20, 2020. It was a 35-year-old citizen of the People's Republic of China, residing in Wuhan, China. The patient had been noticed with a fever on arrival at Incheon Airport on January 19, 2020 and was then taken to a hospital isolation ward, where the infection was diagnosed. She had no known contact with any infected person. By February 18, 2020, the number of known cases of infection in South Korea slowly increased to 31 cases, i.e. That is, about one new infection was registered per day. Of the 31 infected, 13 had recently been in the People's Republic of China and 15 people had allegedly been infected outside of China (no information was available on the remaining three).

From February 19, 2020, a rapid increase in the number of cases began. The reason for this increase was the discovery of an infection cluster in the southern city of Daegu , which developed into a kind of "South Korean Wuhan" in the following days. The majority of the cases of infection initially occurred in the Shincheonji community , a sect-like Christian church. In Daegu's Shincheonji Congregation, parishioners infected each other at their gatherings, with a 61-year-old super-disseminator playing a central role. Afterwards, the parishioners carried the infection outwards. The Shincheonji Church said it will cooperate fully with the authorities to contain the epidemic and provided the health authorities with a list of its members. Since this list was apparently incomplete, house searches were carried out in the offices of the religious community on February 25, 2020. Much anger erupted in the South Korean public; and a petition calling for a ban on the Shincheonji community garnered more than half a million supporter signatures as of February 25, 2020. The Seoul city government has asked the relevant prosecutor's office to bring murder charges against Lee Man-hee and 11 other leaders of the Shincheonji Church.

By the morning of February 22, 2020, 283 cases of infection and the first two deaths caused by the virus had been recorded in South Korea. The most affected city of Daegu took countermeasures, closed public buildings and postponed the start of school for a week. Long queues formed in front of supermarkets to buy supplies. The Korean and American army units stationed in Daegu were ordered to remain in their barracks. With the spread of the epidemic, around 180 colleges and universities across South Korea decided to postpone the upcoming start of the semester. Approximately 80% of the facilities postponed two weeks. The Ministry of Education initially instructed schools and kindergartens to postpone the originally planned start of the new school year from March 2, 2020 to March 23. The start of school was later delayed by a further two weeks to April 6, 2020. Due to further concerns, it was finally decided to gradually start school from April 9 and initially to allow classes to take place online .

On February 24, 2020, South Korea was the country with the highest number of known cases of infection outside of China, with 883 confirmed infections.

As of March 3, 2020, 125,851 suspected cases were counted, of which 4812 tested positive. Of those infected, 2,698 (56.1%) belonged to the Shincheonji sect. 4750 people were in isolation at this point in time, 34 people were released as cured and 28 people had died. Of the remaining 121,039, 85,484 had tested negative and 35,555 were being tested. As of March 12, 2020, around 210,000 people had been tested in South Korea. According to media reports, 400,000 people were tested daily in early April 2020. The measures that the railroad took in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic were extensive.

After 35% of new infections in South Korea were due to newcomers, according to the government, the quarantine regulations for newcomers were tightened on April 1. Without exception, everyone who arrives, regardless of nationality, must go into monitored quarantine for 14 days. Private apartments can be used for this, or state institutions are required, for example in the case of foreigners with a 90-day visa. Violations can be punished with up to three years in prison, fines and, in the case of foreigners, with deportation and a re-entry ban. Those who live in the same household with a returnees and are symptom-free, on the other hand, were not obliged to quarantine; this is sometimes cited in the media as a contributing factor to the continuing increase in the number of infections.

91 of those recovered tested positive for coronavirus infection again in April. It is assumed that these are so-called false positives . This means that those who have recovered are healthy and probably not infectious, but still have virus residues in their bodies.

After there were single-digit numbers of new infections in South Korea from mid-April, the social distancing measures were relaxed. The pupils should go back to school in phases from May 13th. On May 8, it became known that a new source of infection had developed around a nightclub in the Itaewon district of Seoul. Bars and clubs then had to close again indefinitely. The start of school was also postponed again by a week. On May 10, the number of newly infected people was above 30 for the first time since April 12.

statistics

On March 25, the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) released statistics on the death toll. 86% of the 124 deceased infected with the coronavirus previously had chronic high blood pressure or diabetes mellitus or a combination of both. 34 of the 124 deceased had Alzheimer's . Less than 1% of the deceased were younger than 50 years. The average time from detection of infection to death of the infected person was eight days.

Confirmed infections and
those discharged as cured in South Korea (cumulative) according to data from the KCDC

Deaths in South Korea (cumulative)
according to data from the KCDC

South Korean awareness raising poster in English
Drive-through station for corona virus testing in Busan , early March 2020.

Information management

In South Korea, there are apps and websites that warn of places where the infected proven (with their smartphone) have stopped . The data protection legal situation there allows the government to find out the telephone number of people infected with the virus and also to evaluate the GPS data and publish it anonymously. These practices, which can lead to the private lives of individuals being exposed in public, also met with criticism. Although the infected people and their residential addresses are not named in the warning messages, it was repeatedly possible in individual cases to uncover their identity due to the circumstances.

The South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on March 15, 2020 that the situation in South Korea was stabilizing, as the number of new infections for three days had been lower than the number of people cured from the infection. The extremely low mortality rate of the epidemic in South Korea by international comparison is primarily due to the extensive testing of people at risk. In the following weeks, however, it became apparent that the mortality rate continued to rise despite the greatly reduced number of new infections and approached the 2 percent mark in the first half of April 2020.

Countermeasures and their effects

economy

As the economy of South Korea is adversely affected by the corona crisis, the government adopted a stimulus package amounting to about 200 billion US dollars . This includes the promotion of small and medium-sized companies. In addition, all households received between 400,000 and 800,000 won (around € 300 to € 600) from state disaster relief.

Parliamentary elections

The parliamentary elections in South Korea 2020 took place on April 15 as planned, but under strict protective measures. Voters had to wear protective masks and disposable gloves and keep a minimum distance of one meter from other people. Despite the security precautions, there was a high turnout of 66.2%. The successful containment of the coronavirus pandemic resulted in President Moon's party winning votes.

International reactions

  • On February 26, 2020, the German Robert Koch Institute classified the province of Gyeongsangbuk-do as a risk area. From March 25th, the city of Daegu was (expressly) added. However, since April 10, 2020, the Robert Koch Institute has no longer identified any international risk areas.

See also

Web links

Commons : COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea  - Pictures, Videos and Audio Files Collection

Individual evidence

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