How South Korea Flattened the Coronavirus Curve (original) (raw)
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THE INTERPRETER
The country showed that it is possible to contain the coronavirus without shutting down the economy, but experts are unsure whether its lessons can work abroad.
Seoul on Friday. South Korea is one of only two countries to dramatically slow the spread of a major coronavirus outbreak, flattening the curve of new infections.Credit...Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
Published March 23, 2020Updated April 10, 2020
No matter how you look at the numbers, one country stands out from the rest: South Korea.
In late February and early March, the number of new coronavirus infections in the country exploded from a few dozen, to a few hundred, to several thousand.
At the peak, medical workers identified 909 new cases in a single day, Feb. 29, and the country of 50 million people appeared on the verge of being overwhelmed. But less than a week later, the number of new cases halved. Within four days, it halved again — and again the next day.
On Sunday, South Korea reported only 64 new cases, the fewest in nearly a month, even as infections in other countries continue to soar by the thousands daily, devastating health care systems and economies. Italy records several hundred deaths daily; South Korea has not had more than eight in a day.
South Korea is one of only two countries with large outbreaks, alongside China, to flatten the curve of new infections. And it has done so without China’s draconian restrictions on speech and movement, or economically damaging lockdowns like those in Europe and the United States.
As global deaths from the virus surge past 15,000, officials and experts worldwide are scrutinizing South Korea for lessons. And those lessons, while hardly easy, appear relatively straightforward and affordable: swift action, widespread testing and contact tracing, and critical support from citizens.
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