Effective Handling of COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences and Lessons from the Perspective of South Korea

Abdul Majeed

doi:10.3390/covid1010026

Abstract

The ongoing pandemic (i.e., novel corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19)) is a major crisis that humanity is facing across the globe. In response to COVID-19, every country has designed and enforced various mechanisms to control its spread, and save their citizens from this deadly disease. Besides the general containment strategies, the use of technology and person-specific data collection and processing also vary from country to country. In this brief case report, we describe the measures that South Korea (SK) has adopted in order to curb the spread of COVID-19, and the success of SK in keeping the cases at a manageable level since the start of this pandemic until present via extensive use of technology. Specifically, we describe the data collected to control this pandemic, technical framework in place to ensure co-ordination with different authorities, containment strategies, and major breakthrough SK achieved when sporadic clusters emerged throughout the nation. With this brief overview, we aim to update the research community about the unprecedented efforts SK made, utilizing previous pandemic experiences, and the successful results they have obtained so far amid this pandemic, leveraging technology.

Highlights

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become an unanticipated and unprecedented crisis for the whole world
We have summarized the experiences and lessons that can be drawn from the effective handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea (SK)
We have highlighted the main digital mechanisms adopted by SK in order to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and their impact to keep daily cases at a manageable level

Summary

Introduction

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become an unanticipated and unprecedented crisis for the whole world. It has forced the closure of educational institutes, entertainment facilities, and international/domestic events across the globe [1]. The future of many events to be held in 2021, including the Olympics to be held in Japan in July and the cricket world cup to be held in India in October, seem uncertain. The situation is improving in many countries across the globe, returning to normal will likely take more time. In the presence of a vaccine, there is a hope of returning to normalcy soon, but delivering the vaccine fairly to every individual across the globe is one of the major challenges [2]. Substantial efforts are needed to achieve this common goal to eradicate this pandemic as soon as possible

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