The question of why some countries have been more successful than others with their response to the current global pandemic has been asked more frequently as COVID-19 becomes a household term. In recent months, the illness has sent the world scrambling, with some slower to react than others, causing a detrimental increase in confirmed cases popping up globally. One country has seen it all and now see a decrease in their cases without shutting down the entire country. Interestingly one of the closest countries to the point of the first initial outbreak, South Korea has baffled the world in their ability to quell the spread of virus and control it. Confirming up to “30 new cases a day, while in the UK it’s about 5,000, and the US it’s more than 20,000.”, South Korea is among the top four countries in the world to have “controlled” the spread of the virus. But how has South Korea done it?

Speed

Before their first case was confirmed within their borders, South Korea had already started to quarantine and screen people arriving from Wuhan, China. This started on January third, “more than two weeks before the country’s first infection was even confirmed.” Once Korea caught wind of an outbreak, they were quick to start putting safety measures in place, ensuring that they could do all they could to keep it out. Like Dr. Eom Joong Sik stated to CNN in an interview, “early diagnosis, early quarantine and early treatment are key.” South Korea understood from the get-go that the speed in which they responded directly correlated to the amount of cases they would receive. 

Innovation

South Korea still stands as one of the world’s leading centers of technology and innovation. Once they found out about COVID-19, they started to quarantine their residents and utilize two major factors. The first was a sort of “drive-through” screening process to get people tested, a model the United States has now implemented in several states. They have “tested more than 500,000 people, among the highest in the world per capita”, as well as going through rigorous contact-tracing. This has resulted in “fewer than one in every 100,000 people in South Korea’s population” dying from the virus. Additionally, they have utilized an app on the population’s phones to keep tabs on them while in quarantine, ensuring that they’re safe and healthy at home. 

Learning from the Past 

The question to why was South Korea so prepared for this global pandemic is answered simply: they learned from the past. In 2015, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome shocked the world and South Korea “recorded 186 cases and 38 deaths, making it the worst impacted country outside of the Middle East”. They took the lessons of what devastated their country before and worked to ensure they had safety measures in place in case something like that were ever to hit their country again. 

If you’re looking for models to emulate to stay safe from the virus, then looking at South Korea is a sure-way to help. You can never take safety too seriously. Stay inside, follow guidelines and watch our own cases drop as we pass peak periods and continue distancing ourselves until the world is safe for us once again.