Isha – Week One

Isha tells us how the last few weeks have been in Seoul (South Korea) and what her company, Samsung, does to ensure people can still work safely. If you want to know more about Isha, click here to read her bio.

Press the play button to listen to what Isha has to say.

Current situation in South Korea 30-04-2020

On the 20^th of January South Korea saw its first case of COVID-19. Almost a month later on February 17 there were only thirty cases of infection. But this quickly changed after an infected person visited a big religious gathering. There was a sharp increase, and by the 29^th of February there were 3.150 cases. This made it the second largest outbreak after mainland China.

However, South Korea had already been working on test kits for a while and were well prepared for an outbreak. The government believes that testing is the key to control the spread of the virus. If they detect the virus, they can isolate and threat the patients early on. Besides test kits they also produced a lot of facemasks.

Testing can be done via a special drive-through so people don’t have to leave their car. There are 600 locations that can screen up to 20.000 people per day. Everyone can get tested, and if you have any (light) symptoms it’s for free.

There is no lockdown in South Korea, people can still go outside if they wear a facemask. Contact tracing is also an important measure by which South Korea seems to have flattened the curve. There is a special app that will send people notifications if there is a person who has COVID-19 in their area. People who get a notification are more careful and may avoid some places.

Since there are no restrictions of movement in South Korea, disinfecting is important. Streets, public transport and other open spaces are continuously disinfected. There also bottles of disinfectant on intersections and shops. At home people will also disinfect their groceries.

All of these measures seem to have worked because on the 30th of April there are, for the first time since February, no new domestic cases of the coronavirus. There are four new infections, but they are all imported cases.

Extras

You can watch this video if you want to know more about the strategy of South Korea, or read this article.