From early February, Coronavirus got viral in South Korea, especially in Daegu. Fortunately, in Seoul, where my family lives, it was not the one the coronavirus is extremely serious; therefore, I somewhat could be relieved of my family’s safety while I am studying in the United States. However, I worried about my relatives because my father’s hometown is Daegu and currently my father’s family is living there. Due to the coronavirus, my family started to avoid going outside such as walking around with our pet, eating outside, avoiding touching one’s face, washing hands frequently, and so on.
Coronavirus is easily coming through the air so that people wear a mask no matter what they are infected or not. However, South Korea introduced “Drive-Through” method to test the coronavirus which roughly takes about 10 minutes to take a test and about 6 hours to get a result. Hospitals categorized the infected people into four categories based on the severity of the virus and then provided bed in a ward. Also, Korean government let infected people live in a separated building built specifically for self-isolation by providing certain amount of supporting fund.
Also, Korea KCDC (Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) transparently reported the diagnosed people’s movements in public so that other people can avoid going the places for a while. KCDC checks a breakdown of infected people’s credit card use and found out that where she or he went and stayed within protecting their personal information such as name, faces, and so on. Also, in Korea, people who went abroad should get a test at the airport to prevent further additional infection.
Recently, Korean hospitals adopted “Walking-through” system which isolating patients and doctors should not to be in the same place and test the infection for the prevention of infection of medical teams from the patients. Plus, some robots for sterilization, heat detection, and delivery of products which contain fatal chemicals are currently using in hospitals. In addition, Postech invented a new system which can reduce d testing time (6 hours) to about 15 minutes. South Korea allowed illegal immigrants to be tested or to freely leave the country. By embracing these groups of people, further infection for coronavirus could be controlled.
I heard from my parents that in South Korea, people can purchase a disposable mask at pharmacies in a particular day after government introduced a system – so called “5-부제.” This system is that based on last number of year of birth, people can purchase a mask by proving their identification card on a specific day except Saturday and Sunday which are all available to everyone. Also, a person can purchase 2 masks at once. Therefore, I observed my parents go out to get their masks once a week with certain time and this makes me feel better since I do not have to seriously worry about my parents’ health safety. Furthermore, they told me that in elevators in most buildings in Korea, anti-virus film is attached in order to prevent group-infection and indirect contact infection. This film makes inhabitation of virus and bacteria difficult by containing copper (Cu++). According to Chung-Cheung Times, this enables effective blocking indirect and cross infection by attaching to the things where many people touch such as elevator button, door handle, handrail pole, and so on. Through this system, my parents could freely and much more comfortably use elevator of the apartment and enter other buildings.
After government’s instructions, Many Koreans begun to do “social distancing” which intentionally places distances more than two meters between people with wearing a mask. When my parents go outside, they wear a mask and walk by placing some distance from other people to reduce the possibility of infection of the coronavirus as other people also do. In addition, as I heard from my parents, in South Korea, fortunately, there is no “panic buying.” This led citizens calm and relieve since they do not have to worry to get groceries especially tissues and water hardly. Thus, my parents freely go to grocery shopping as usual whenever they need.
I heard that some countries adopted “Drive-Through” systems after they saw South Korea’s system and contacted to Korea to get testing kits. This system allows people to get a result of infection within few hours (maximum 2 days); therefore, this would be helpful for the reduction of infected people and increase of people getting appropriate treatment. I believe that thinking usage of masks more significant would be effective to reduce the rate of coronavirus infection by fixing the meaning of wearing masks. In western countries, many people consider wearing mask is only for the patients and even government officials announced that masks are useless for people except medical teams. However, in my opinion, masks play a role of prevention of further infection from the air. Therefore, reconstructing image of masks would be one of key lessons to have from my experiences and from situation in Korea. Plus, active testing of infection can be important to block further additional infection in my viewpoint along with trying to avoid outdoor activities.
Visual Effects
- Drive-Through System in South Korea
2. Anti-Virus Film Introduction
References
Baldwin, A.N. (2020, March 24). COVID-19 symptoms may include altered senses of smell,
Taste. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/Health/covid-19-symptoms-include-altered-senses-smell-taste/story?id=69769629
Hyukdu, K. (2020, March 22). Anti-Virus Film attachment in public institution and financial
Institution located in Boen county. Retrieved from
http://www.cctimes.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=606396#08W8