COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea

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

• List of epidemics and pandemics
• List of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pulmonologists on the net: Covid-19: Causes . Online at www.lungenaerzte-im-netz.de. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
2. ↑ Tagesschau: “Deeply worried”. WHO speaks of corona pandemic. March 11, 2020. Online at www.tagesschau.de. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
3. ↑ Press Release. KCDC (질병 관리 본부, Korean Center for Disease Control), accessed March 21, 2020 . 
4. ↑ from February 11th the KCDC issued two numbers a day, one for 9:00 KST (1:00 CET), one for 16:00 KST (8:00 CET), the 2nd value is given in the table.
5. ^ Novel Coronavirus - Republic of Korea (ex-China). WHO, February 21, 2020, accessed February 27, 2020 . 
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7. ↑ Coronavirus: Why did infections shoot up in South Korea? BBC News, February 25, 2020, accessed February 27, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Coronavirus: South Korea sect leader to face homicide probe over deaths. BBC News, March 1, 2020, accessed March 1, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Martin Farrer: Coronavirus: South Korea cluster drives huge rise in cases. The Guardian, February 22, 2020, accessed February 27, 2020 . 
10. ↑ 177 개 대학 개강 연기 ··· 80% 가 '2 주 결정' (177 universities postpone the start of the semester - around 80% of them postponed by 2 weeks). 한국 대학 신문 (University Newspaper for Korea), February 18, 2018, accessed February 29, 2020 . 
11. ↑ Bahk Eun-ji: Schools to delay spring semester for 2 more weeks. In: The Korea Times . March 2, 2020, accessed on March 12, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Korea again pushes back new school year on virus fears. In: Korea Times. March 17, 2020, accessed on March 17, 2020 . 
13. ^ S. Korea to begin new school year with online classes on April 9 amid virus. In: Yonhap . March 31, 2020, accessed April 1, 2020 . 
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15. ↑ The updates on COVID-19 in Korea as of March 1. KCDC (질병 관리 본부, Korean Center for Disease Control), accessed March 3, 2020 (press release).  That was the highest number of pending test results, and the number has decreased since then.
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18. ↑ KORAIL: Measures taken to prevent viral infections on the railways of the Republic of Korea . In: OSJD Bulletin 2/2020, p. 43.
19. ^ Justin McCurry: "South Korea bars entry to foreign nationals who refuse to self-isolate" The Guardian, April 3, 2020
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21. ↑ Daily mirror : No immunity after coronavirus infection? 91 recovered from Covid-19 in South Korea. April 10, 2020, accessed April 11, 2020 . 
22. ↑ Sangmi Cha, Josh Smith: Explainer: South Korean findings suggest 'reinfected' coronavirus cases are false positives. In: Reuters. May 6, 2020, accessed on May 8, 2020 . 
23. ^ With lax social distancing in store, virus curve flattens for days. In: The Korea Herald . Yonhap , April 28, 2020, accessed May 10, 2020 . 
24. ↑ S. Korea to loosen social distancing amide virus slow down. In: The Korea Herald . Yonhap, May 3, 2020, accessed May 10, 2020 . 
25. ↑ Lee Sung-eun, Baek Min-jeong: Social distancing is officially over. In: Korea JoongAng Daily . May 5, 2020, accessed on May 10, 2020 . 
26. ↑ Virus infections in S. Korea under control amid eased social distancing. In: The Korea Herald . Yonhap, May 7, 2020, accessed May 10, 2020 . 
27. ↑ Jun Ji-hye: Schools to reopen in phases from May 13. In: The Korea Times . May 4, 2020, accessed on May 10, 2020 . 
28. ^ Bahk Eun-ji: Gov't delays school reopening by one week. In: The Korea Times . May 11, 2020, accessed on May 11, 2020 . 
29. ↑ Patrick Welter: New increase in infection by visiting a club in Seoul. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. May 8, 2020, accessed May 10, 2020 . 
30. ↑ Kim Arin: Virus cases linked to Itaewon clubs spike to 54. In: The Korea Herald . May 10, 2020, accessed on May 10, 2020 . 
31. ↑ Park Si-soo: 86% of coronavirus fatalities had chronic high blood pressure, diabetes: data. In: The Korea Times . March 25, 2020, accessed on March 25, 2020 . 
32. ↑ Press Release. KCDC (질병 관리 본부, Korean Center for Disease Control), accessed March 20, 2020 . 
33. ↑ Press Release. KCDC (질병 관리 본부, Korean Center for Disease Control), accessed March 20, 2020 . 
34. ↑ ^{a b} Katharina Graça Peters: South Korea's strategy of radical transparency. In: Der Spiegel. February 29, 2020, accessed March 1, 2020 . 
35. ↑ Coronavirus privacy: Are South Korea's alerts too revealing? BBC News, March 5, 2020, accessed March 14, 2020 . 
36. ^ Coronavirus: South Korea seeing a 'stabilizing trend'. BBC News, March 15, 2020, accessed March 15, 2020 . 
37. ↑ South Korea boosts coronavirus crisis stimulus package to $ 200bn. In: Financial Times. April 22, 2020, accessed May 8, 2020 . 
38. ↑ (LEAD) S. Korea unveils 2nd extra budget of 7.6 tln won for aid to virus-hit households. In: Yonhap. April 16, 2020, accessed on May 8, 2020 . 
39. ↑ Parliamentary elections in South Korea: Moon's ruling party wins big. In: tagesschau.de . April 16, 2020, accessed April 19, 2020 . 
40. ↑ Daily status report of the RKI on Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19). 03/25/2020 - UPDATED STATUS FOR GERMANY. Robert Koch Institute, accessed April 26, 2020 . 
41. ↑ Daily status report of the RKI on Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19). 04/10/2020 - UPDATED STATUS FOR GERMANY. Robert Koch Institute, accessed April 26, 2020 . 
42. ↑ Information on suspending the designation of international risk areas / particularly affected areas in Germany. Robert Koch Institute, accessed April 26, 2020 .