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That was South Korean President Moon Jae-in who spoke on Sunday after a new group of coronavirus cases emerged in the country’s capital Seoul, sparking fear of a second wave of infections in the country. East Asian.
South Korea was one of the first places to deal with a major coronavirus epidemic, and appeared to be on its way to loosening restrictions after weeks of social distancing and careful surveillance. But the new group appears to have put an end to that, for now, with Moon warning his people, “We should never let our guard down on epidemic prevention.”
China is also introducing new restrictions after two cities reported new cases of the virus. Shulan, in Jilin province, in the far northeast of the country, was placed under lockdown after 11 recently confirmed cases. Jilin borders Russia and North Korea, and concerns have previously been raised about imported cases from abroad that caused a renewed outbreak.
More alarming is the new cluster of infections in Wuhan, the central city of China, where cases of the new coronavirus were first detected late last year. Wuhan was the first city in the world to go into blockade, only returning to relative normalcy at the end of last month after 76 days.
On Monday, city officials said five new cases had been confirmed in the city, none of which was imported from abroad. While that is a far cry from the figures at the start of the crisis, or reported daily in much of Western Europe and the United States at this time, the virus’s apparent ability to continue to spread undetected, especially in A city as intensely guarded and restricted as Wuhan will raise concerns about the feasibility of reopening.
My Feng, spokesman for the Chinese National Health Commission, on Sunday urged people to “stay alert and increase personal protection against the virus.” He added that the new groups were a reminder to avoid social gatherings and to seek medical advice or tests if someone had virus symptoms.
Before the latest cases, the number of new infections in both China and South Korea had slowly declined, and local transmission appeared to be stopped. While questions may be raised about the accuracy of China’s numbers, or the certainty that all cases may have been detected and contained by all in such a large country, South Korea’s response has been hailed as one of the best to global level, helped in part by the relatively small size of the country and easily controllable borders.
Elsewhere in Europe, Germany had also been cited as an example of how to handle an outbreak, but its breeding number has increased to more than one over the past two days in a row, according to its disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute. . (RKI) This means that, on average, one infected person is infecting more than another person.
It was seen as a regional success story thanks to a well-resourced health system and early massive testing. The number of reproductions in the country was estimated to have dropped to 0.65 last Thursday, and a slow reopening began. Chancellor Angela Merkel told the public last week that they could “afford a little courage,” and warned that “we have to make sure this doesn’t get out of hand.”
RKI said there was still a “degree of uncertainty” with the latest estimates, but the increase in the rate of reproduction “makes it necessary to watch development closely in the coming days.”
The German federal government and states agreed on a rollback mechanism in case the virus comes back. If any county exceeds 50 new coronavirus infections per 100,000 residents, closure measures will be reintroduced in that county. Over the weekend, several counties across the country exceeded that limit.
The latter cases may still prove to be a problem to be contained, but that three countries that seemed to be aware of the issues again report that national broadcasts should be of great concern.
Observers need only look at Singapore, which in early April had fewer than 2,000 cases, and now has more than 23,000, regarding the potential risks of relaxing too early and assuming that the battle is won when it first begins. The city state is increasing contact tracking, movement restrictions, and is even deploying robot dogs to encourage social estrangement as it tries to control its outbreak.
Will any lessons be learned from these countries in the West, where countries have been delayed by several weeks in their outbreaks, but many governments are already struggling to relax the blockades, despite high infection rates?
Recent history suggests not. Western governments lagged in their response to the virus as it spread across Asia, despite clear evidence of the potential for a global pandemic. Asian experience and advice was also ignored in face masks until months after the pandemic – a recent study by scientists in Hong Kong and the UK is only the latest to confirm that such covers dramatically reduce infection rates.
New infections in China and South Korea also risk triggering a nihilistic response. If countries that seem to be at the peak of the disease cannot contain it, what can a nation expect to do with thousands of cases a day? But it could be said that this is the wrong conclusion: these countries had the worst outbreaks in the world in February, but managed to control them. That they’re seeing new cases is a lesson in the risks of relaxing too soon, not a reason to drop the fight entirely.
Asia’s message is also not bleak. Vietnam and Thailand are discussing the possible creation of a travel broker, so confident that their internal outbreaks are contained. New Zealand and Australia have already agreed to do the same, although not for several months.
And Hong Kong, which managed to control a second wave of the virus when it looked like the city might follow Singapore’s path, has gone 21 days without local infections, increasing the chance of being declared virus-free later this month.
It doesn’t end until it’s over. But it will end, eventually. What the Asian experience shows is that this will require continuous vigilance and a lot of patience.
CNN’s Fred Pleitgen in Berlin contributed reports.
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