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Very surprised to find out country (city) in HN's top page! For people who are interested in current Korea's situation: There were 18 new cases two days ago,

Very surprised to find out country (city) in HN's top page! For people who are interested in current Korea's situation: There were 18 new cases two days ago, and 8 new cases yesterday. The number of new cases have been consistently falling since April 14th. 'Intense social distancing' was stopped yesterday (April 19th), and the Korean government is planning to drop the 'social distancing' policy on May 5th. Schools are planned to open on May 6th, and the ban of churches, bars, etc. are expected to be dropped in the following days (probably tomorrow). The KCDC is saying that to drop the 'social distancing', there should consistently have less than 30 cases (which is true for a week) and cases which infection routes are unknown should be less than 5% of all new cases. (It was about 5%~10% when it was announced, and AFAIK it's now true.) There's still some anxiety because people started to become dull to the social distancing movement - so people are worrying that new cases might increase.

modernyogihippy 7y ago
What about international flights? Are airports in SK still closed? I'm pretty sure they will have to limit traffic into and out of the country despite easing social distancing. Otherwise, won't there be a new wave of infections when they let 'outsiders' back in from places where the virus is still running rampant?
- pcr910303 7y ago
  > What about international flights? Are airports in SK still closed? I'm pretty sure they will have to limit traffic into and out of the country despite easing social distancing. Airports in South Korea has never been closed - South Korea has never banned anyone coming & going outside. A quarantine of two weeks became mandatory since April 1th, but South Korea has never closed Airports or has done a lockdown. > Otherwise, won't there be a new wave of infections when they let 'outsiders' back in from places where the virus is still running rampant? Definitely that's a concern, 5 out of 8 new cases yesterday were people that were infected from foreign countries. However since South Korea has never closed it's airports, people generally think it's controllable(like it always was).
pcr910303 7y ago
There was the election of the National Assembly on April 15th, and it ended in an overwhelming victory for the party of the government. IMHO COVID-19 has shown how the current government is different to the last government that handled MERS - which was impeached (the percentage of supporters have greatly increased during the COVID-19 outbreak).
gdulli 7y ago
> There were 18 new cases two days ago, and 8 new cases yesterday. > Korean government is planning to drop the 'social distancing' policy on May 5th. Are the people divided about whether it was a good idea to wait until new cases got this low before making decisions about moving forward? Or is there very broad support for the kind of discipline it takes to wait until May 5 despite the cases being so low already? Have people's opinions about the appropriate level of response become politicized? Have the facts and statistics and science of it all become politicized?
- LeoTinnitus 7y ago
  I think it has more to do with forcing people in there homes cooped up for weeks on end.
- pcr910303 7y ago
  > Are the people divided about whether it was a good idea to wait until new cases got this low before making decisions about moving forward? People are generally agreeing that it's a good idea to wait b.c. they also think that there's still the possibility that a new wave of outbreak can happen. > Or is there very broad support for the kind of discipline it takes to wait until May 5 despite the cases being so low already? The policy of dropping the 'social distancing' was decided by the KCDC (consistently have less than 30 cases / cases which infection routes are unknown should be less than 5% of all new cases) on April 12th when the count has dropped less than 30 for the first time. The government is still saying that if a new outbreak happens within the next two weeks, the day might be pushed back. It's still very elastic. > Have people's opinions about the appropriate level of response become politicized? Have the facts and statistics and science of it all become politicized? It's only targeting the people of Seoul, but 97% of all people agreed that the 'social distancing' policy should be dropped sometime soon, but 64% also agreed that April 19th was too fast - hence the May 5th decision.
- yongjik 7y ago
  As GP said in another reply, the incumbent party won a landslide victory in recent congressional election (180 out of 300 seats), so it seems South Koreans generally approve how the government handled it. (Of course the timing was fortuitous for Moon: had the election happened ~45 days ago things would have been very different.) Even for the opponents, it seems the majority criticism was that the government didn't do enough - somehow they're very angry about not blocking visitors from China. (Many conservatives have a strong pro-America, anti-China sentiment, and frequently accuse the president of being the opposite.)

modernyogihippy 7y ago

What about international flights? Are airports in SK still closed? I'm pretty sure they will have to limit traffic into and out of the country despite easing social distancing. Otherwise, won't there be a new wave of infections when they let 'outsiders' back in from places where the virus is still running rampant?

pcr910303 7y ago
> What about international flights? Are airports in SK still closed? I'm pretty sure they will have to limit traffic into and out of the country despite easing social distancing. Airports in South Korea has never been closed - South Korea has never banned anyone coming & going outside. A quarantine of two weeks became mandatory since April 1th, but South Korea has never closed Airports or has done a lockdown. > Otherwise, won't there be a new wave of infections when they let 'outsiders' back in from places where the virus is still running rampant? Definitely that's a concern, 5 out of 8 new cases yesterday were people that were infected from foreign countries. However since South Korea has never closed it's airports, people generally think it's controllable(like it always was).

pcr910303 7y ago

There was the election of the National Assembly on April 15th, and it ended in an overwhelming victory for the party of the government. IMHO COVID-19 has shown how the current government is different to the last government that handled MERS - which was impeached (the percentage of supporters have greatly increased during the COVID-19 outbreak).

gdulli 7y ago

> There were 18 new cases two days ago, and 8 new cases yesterday. > Korean government is planning to drop the 'social distancing' policy on May 5th. Are the people divided about whether it was a good idea to wait until new cases got this low before making decisions about moving forward? Or is there very broad support for the kind of discipline it takes to wait until May 5 despite the cases being so low already? Have people's opinions about the appropriate level of response become politicized? Have the facts and statistics and science of it all become politicized?

LeoTinnitus 7y ago
I think it has more to do with forcing people in there homes cooped up for weeks on end.
pcr910303 7y ago
> Are the people divided about whether it was a good idea to wait until new cases got this low before making decisions about moving forward? People are generally agreeing that it's a good idea to wait b.c. they also think that there's still the possibility that a new wave of outbreak can happen. > Or is there very broad support for the kind of discipline it takes to wait until May 5 despite the cases being so low already? The policy of dropping the 'social distancing' was decided by the KCDC (consistently have less than 30 cases / cases which infection routes are unknown should be less than 5% of all new cases) on April 12th when the count has dropped less than 30 for the first time. The government is still saying that if a new outbreak happens within the next two weeks, the day might be pushed back. It's still very elastic. > Have people's opinions about the appropriate level of response become politicized? Have the facts and statistics and science of it all become politicized? It's only targeting the people of Seoul, but 97% of all people agreed that the 'social distancing' policy should be dropped sometime soon, but 64% also agreed that April 19th was too fast - hence the May 5th decision.
yongjik 7y ago
As GP said in another reply, the incumbent party won a landslide victory in recent congressional election (180 out of 300 seats), so it seems South Koreans generally approve how the government handled it. (Of course the timing was fortuitous for Moon: had the election happened ~45 days ago things would have been very different.) Even for the opponents, it seems the majority criticism was that the government didn't do enough - somehow they're very angry about not blocking visitors from China. (Many conservatives have a strong pro-America, anti-China sentiment, and frequently accuse the president of being the opposite.)