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SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea was so proud of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic that it coined a term for it: K-Quarantine, named after the worldwide musical phenomenon K-pop.
His two-pronged strategy of fighting the virus while keeping the economy running seemed to work. The country practically stopped a large outbreak without closing its borders, blocking cities or provoking protests over draconian restrictions on speech and movement. The country was presented as a model for the rest of the world.
But now, South Korea is battling a second wave of infections, and its strategy seems as precarious as ever. The new wave is spreading from the populous Seoul metropolitan area and through people deeply suspicious of President Moon Jae-in’s epidemiological efforts. To further complicate matters, some of the government’s strongest allies in the fight against Covid-19, young doctors, have turned against Moon. They have gone on strike, unhappy with their medical reform program.
The government is also trying to strike a fragile balance between controlling the virus and safeguarding the economy, and between using government power to protect public health and not infringing on civil liberties.
“Our quarantine strategy, once considered a model for the rest of the world to follow, is suddenly facing a crisis,” Moon admitted last week. “The entire nation is in a difficult situation. People’s lives are falling apart ”.
South Korea’s daily case burden of new infections, once less than 10, has been in the triple digits every day since August 14, bringing the country from 50 million people to more than 20,000 cases and 326 deaths, according to a New York Times. database. The virus has spread rapidly from churches and a large anti-government protest rally. The Moon government has threatened lawsuits and prosecutions against parishioners and protesters accused of obstructing officials’ efforts to control the epidemic. But they have rejected him, calling him a dictator who runs the country under “martial law of quarantine.”
Undeterred, Moon recently tightened restrictions, banning church gatherings and large outdoor demonstrations and closing nightclubs and bars. Epidemiologists have called for more drastic social distancing measures, such as banning all gatherings of more than 10 people and closing hundreds of thousands of other venues, such as professional sports games, cafes and wedding halls.
But Moon has been hesitant to go that far, fearing damage to the already contracting economy.
“We are at a crossroads,” Jung Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday. “Next week we will decide if we can stabilize the second wave of infections.”
At the end of February, South Korea was reporting up to 900 cases a day. But the country quickly flattened the curve for new infections, thanks to its aggressive tracing and contact testing program. Another key to success was an audience that adopted restrictions on their civil rights for the sake of fighting the pandemic.
People wore masks on a daily basis. Few complained when the government aggressively used surveillance camera footage, smartphone location data and credit card purchase records to help track coronavirus patients and establish chains of transmission. The South Koreans also gave Moon’s ruling Democratic Party a landslide victory in the April parliamentary elections.
By May, South Korea was confident it could become more economically active without allowing contagion to return in force. She started a campaign called “A New Daily Life with Covid-19,” urging people to get out there, socialize, spend and have fun to keep the economy going. If there were any setbacks, the restrictions would return to their place.
“We can’t delay going back to normal life forever,” Moon said at the time. “The quarantine is the beginning of the economic recovery, but it does not bring us the food.”
The government released 14 trillion won, or $ 11.8 billion, in cash gifts to households to help shore up domestic consumption. At the end of May, it opened 256 beaches across the country for vacationers. In July, it allowed Bible studies and other small religious gatherings, previously banned as a difficult-to-monitor avenue for the spread of the virus.
In August, just days before the spike in cases, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted that South Korea’s economy would contract just 0.8 percent this year, compared to an average of 7.5 percent for other countries in the group.
Millions of South Koreans hit the road and shopped in mid-August during a three-day weekend created by the Moon government to give “a short but valuable time off to people tired from the prolonged epidemic.”
But even before the holidays started on Aug. 15, signs emerged that loosening restrictions was leading to more infections.
Days earlier, a fast-growing outbreak broke out at Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul, home to a faith-based conservative political movement against Mr. Moon. Another outbreak began on August 15, when critics of Moon’s policies, especially in North Korea, attended a large anti-government rally in central Seoul. Some members of the Sarang Jeil Church had mingled with the crowd, health officials said.
On Wednesday, the Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon, senior pastor of the Sarang Jeil Church, held a press conference in which he accused the government of using the churches as a scapegoat to silence its critics and cover up its own epidemiological failings.
A dozen other smaller outbreaks have also broken out, many of them in churches, prompting the government to shut down all religious services except those that are online.
The coronavirus outbreak>
Frequent questions
Updated September 1, 2020
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Why is it safer to spend time together outdoors?
- Outdoor gatherings reduce risk because viral droplets are dispersed by wind and sunlight can kill some of the viruses. Open spaces prevent the virus from accumulating in concentrated amounts and being inhaled, which can happen when infected people exhale into a confined space for long periods of time, said Dr. Julian W. Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester .
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What are the symptoms of the coronavirus?
- At first, the coronavirus appeared to be primarily a respiratory illness – many patients had fever and chills, were weak and tired, and were coughing a lot, although some people don’t show many symptoms at all. Those who appeared the sickest had pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome and received supplemental oxygen. By now, doctors have identified many more symptoms and syndromes. In April, the CDC added a sore throat, fever, chills and muscle aches to the list of early signs. Gastrointestinal complaints, such as diarrhea and nausea, have also been observed. Another telltale sign of infection can be a sudden and profound decrease in the sense of smell and taste. In some cases, teens and young adults have developed painful red and purple lesions on their fingers and toes, dubbed “covid toe,” but some other serious symptoms.
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Why does it help to be six feet from others?
- The coronavirus is mainly transmitted through droplets from the mouth and nose, especially when you cough or sneeze. The CDC, one of the organizations that uses that measure, bases its six-foot recommendation on the idea that most of the large droplets that people expel when they cough or sneeze will hit the ground within six feet. But six feet has never been a magic number that guarantees complete protection. Sneezing, for example, can send droplets more than six feet, according to a recent study. It’s a general rule of thumb: it’s safest to stand six feet away outside, especially when it’s windy. But keep a mask on at all times, even when you think you are far enough away.
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I have antibodies. Am I now immune?
- As of now, that seems likely, for at least several months. There have been terrifying accounts of people experiencing what appears to be a second episode of Covid-19. But experts say these patients can have a prolonged course of infection, and the virus takes a slow number of weeks to months after initial exposure. People infected with the coronavirus often produce immune molecules called antibodies, which are protective proteins that are produced in response to infection. These antibodies can last in the body for only two to three months, which may sound worrisome, but that’s perfectly normal after an acute infection subsides, said Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist at Harvard University. It is possible that you will contract the coronavirus again, but it is highly unlikely that it will be possible in a short time from the initial infection or that it will make people sick a second time.
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What are my rights if I am concerned about going back to work?
The increasing daily number of new cases is not the only alarming development. The percentage of patients for whom the origin of the infection could not be determined has also increased, to more than 21 percent in the second half of August from 10 percent in the first half. This has raised fears that health authorities are losing control. of transmission routes.
As new outbreaks threaten to cloud one of his greatest achievements as president, Mr. Moon has sounded increasingly strident, suggesting that he will use the forceful force of law to punish those who hinder the government’s epidemiological efforts. His government has proclaimed “zero tolerance” and “maximum penalties.”
“You cannot assert freedom of religion, assembly or expression at the cost of such harm,” he said, accusing politically active conservative church members of spreading the virus and endangering the economy.
“Prayers can give you peace of mind, but they don’t protect you from the virus,” he said.
So far, police have referred 959 people to prosecution for violating laws to control the virus, including hundreds accused of disobeying a government order to wear masks or break quarantine to go out to eat, drink, smoke, take out the trash or show up at their workplaces. Police arrested at least four people, including two pastors, who were accused of cheating in epidemiological investigations by lying about their whereabouts or the size of their church congregations.
Authorities have also detained 202 people on suspicion of spreading disinformation and leaking personal data, including people who claimed on YouTube that the government was manipulating test results to keep dissidents in quarantine. The southeastern city of Busan sued six churches that defied government orders not to meet for services.
Last week, the government announced a series of measures that had been discussed before the pandemic, such as increasing the number of students in medical school. But the young doctors went on strike in protest, saying there are already enough doctors and instead the government needed to invest in improving medical services in rural areas. The government sued several doctors who refused to return to work.
Doctors said they were also disillusioned with the government’s heavy-handed methods in trying to push forward its controversial policies as the entire nation battled the pandemic.
“But talking to them has been like talking to a wall,” said Dr. Park Jee-hyun, leader of the striking doctors.
