Mar 11, 2020 at 03:08 pm

Has South Korea Stabilized Its COVID-19 Outbreak?

Update posted by Andre Jankowitz

Alongside Italy and Iran, South Korea swiftly became one of COVID-19's three major international footholds outside China. While there are claims Iran's confirmed virus count has been drastically underreported and Italy remains in a nationwide lockdown, there are encouraging signs from South Korea. It experienced 7,700 confirmed cases of the virus by March 11 with around three quarters of that total occurring in Daegu and about 63 percent directly linked to the Shinchonji religious group. The latest data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the number of new daily infections across the country has largely declined in recent days.

At the end of February, there were 909 new confirmed cases and on March 10, that had fallen to 131. The latest March 11 data shows an increase to 242, though that number is still a long way off the daily totals reported in late February. The primary reason South Korea has managed to slow the spread of COVID-19 seems to be the government's swift move to roll out widespread and free public testing. The city of Goyang even established an innovative drive-thru testing area, a move that has been copied by some regional officials in Germany.

In an interview with CNN, South Korea's top health official, Park Neunghoo, said that he hoped his country has passed the peak before emphasizing the importance of early testing. He said that "raising the testing capability is very important because that way, you can detect someone who's carrying the virus, then you can contain the virus". If authorities are able to keep the spread of the virus in check, South Korea's model of containment will surely become an example for other badly impacted countries.


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