Hundreds of South Korea schools close again after reopening

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CNN

By Jake Kwon and Sophie Jeong

Seoul (CNN)More than 500 schools closed again Friday to students after briefly reopening, as South Korea moves to stamp out a resurgence of the coronavirus in the capital, Seoul, and its surrounding metropolitan area.

Parks, art galleries, museums and theaters operated by the government in the Seoul metropolitan area -- home to about half the country's population of nearly 52 million -- have also been closed to the public for the next two weeks.

Government hosted events in the metropolitan area will be canceled or postponed as well, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said Thursday. The authorities have recommended that private academies and internet cafes there close too until June 14.

Park also asked people living in the Seoul metropolitan area to refrain from going outside or holding events for the next fortnight.



A worker sprays disinfectant in a classroom at a high school in Seoul earlier this month. South Korea has been held up as a global model in how to curb the coronavirus.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/asia/south-korea-coronavirus-shuts-down-again-intl/index.html

[Initech]

1. So long society. Get used to the virtual world.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

2. We are in trouble.

Korea had this beat a little while ago:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/whats-south-koreas-secret/611215/

[SunSeeker]

3. We are in trouble. South Korea is not.

South Korea has competent leadership who is following the science and expert advice. We don't have that.

As someone pointed out in another thread, the US had 26,158 new cases on May 26, 2020. That's about 75 new cases per million people, whereas South Korea's 79 cases in one day that prompted this action is about 1.5 new cases per million. 

So we've got 50 times the rate of new cases per capita on a typical recent day than South Korea had during this "spike." And yet they're taking decisive action to clamp down on spread...and we're opening up, still with no national testing and contact tracing program like South Korea has.

We would not have even detected a 79-case spike, let alone done something about it.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

4. I know the US of A as a whole needs a leader.

I live in California. We have a leader, but If SK has to routinely lock down. Places like the US, Russia, Brazil, etc. will just continually spread this. We humans are our own worst enemy.

[SunSeeker]

5. SK never locked down. Its restaurants and factories have always remained open.

They used testing, contact tracing, targeted quarantines and universal mask wearing to get Covid-19 under control. They only shut down their schools and parks during the initial outbreak, and now they're doing it again. And they'll keep doing that every time there is a spike, until there is a vaccine or effective treatment.

South Korea got their first confirmed Covid-19 case on the same day as us, Jan. 20.  But their leader took it seriously even before then, and immediately started mass producing tests as soon as the WHO made the testing formula available to the world on Jan. 17. South Korea immediately did mass testing to find hotspots and do targeted quarantines and contact tracing.  Because of their mass testing program, they never had to shut down whole sectors of their economy, like restaurants or factories.   https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/26/821688981/how-south-korea-reigned-in-the-outbreak-without-shutting-everything-down Not only did their testing program save their economy, it saved lives. They've lost under 300 people,  we've lost over 100,000, and we're still losing thousands every few days. And our economy is in tatters.

But I agree with you, humans are our own worst enemy. We could have paradise on earth, it is all in our hands. And yet we have created hell on earth.

[soryang]

6. the new outbreak is related to the Itaewaon clubs cluster

the pathway reflects on life in S.Korea. One positive case related to the Itaewon outbreak was a hakwon instructor. One of his students also got it. One of them attended a first birthday family celebration, another there was another later confirmed positive as well. One of them took a taxi, and the taxi driver became positive. The taxi driver went to the Coupang distribution center, which is something like an Amazon center. There more cases developed. At some point along the way a church goer became positive, and then some church visitors from other churches spread it to other congregations.

So night clubs, hakwon's (private tutoring classes), traditional family get togethers, and church congregations remain vectors for the spread. It is wise to close schools again under the circumstances of a significant spread of the virus.

As many South Koreans now really on tekbae deliveries for meals, groceries, and other necessities, a potential risk to tekbae suppliers from a distributor like Coupang is viewed as ominous.

It is amazing that within 24 hours of the increased outbreak, the public health authorities could track the spread with greater specificity than i am capable of recounting here.

[SunSeeker]

7. South Koreans us apps for contact tracing. Very fast and efficient.

But even plain old phone calls work, which is what the Germans do, since they don't use apps because of privacy concerns. We of course do not do either. We leave contact tracing, like testing, up to beleaguered states, without providing funding to do it.