hankyoreh

Public workers disinfect a classroom at a middle school in Daegu on Apr. 13. (Yonhap News)

After the South Korean government’s intense social distancing measures come to an end, disease control authorities are likely to make a step-by-step transition to quarantine measures that allow a relative return to daily routines, as it has promised. Additional factors that the authorities will consider in connection with this transition are the regional distribution of patients and their level of infectivity.

“There are fears that we won’t be able to release the guidelines for routine-based disease control [which will be finalized after canvassing public opinion] in their final form all at once. Another option we might consider is moving in phases and starting by applying the guidelines in the areas where they can be implemented safely and immediately,” said Kim Gang-lip, first general coordinator for South Korea’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and vice minister of health and welfare, on Apr. 13.

“Even if we switch to a routine-based approach, that doesn’t mean we’ll be completely revoking the social distancing rules right away. The transition would be conducted in several stages,” another government official said.

Such remarks suggest that, even if the authorities do transition to the new approach, that transition might occur in stages, beginning with certain regions or groups, with the new approach applied first to areas where the COVID-19 situation has been stabilized.

This is a view that some experts have embraced. “We need to be thinking about relaxing social distancing restrictions on economic activities in provinces like Jeju and North and South Jeolla that haven’t seen a serious COVID-19 outbreak,” said Jeong Gi-seok, a professor of pulmonology at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital.

The government is mulling a step-by-step transition to its disease control approach because it wants to prevent that transition from triggering a resurgence of COVID-19 and to underline that people need to stick to social distancing. When the government extended its intense social distancing period on Apr. 4, the requirements it set for transitioning to the routine-based approach were for the daily tally of new cases to stay below 50 and for the number of patients with an unknown source of transmission to stay below 5%.

Now that those requirements have been met, some are asking whether social distancing even needs to be maintained. Such doubts are apparently preventing the government from nailing down the timeline of its transition to the routine-based approach.

“I’m worried that talking about transitioning to the routine-based approach to disease control might be sending the wrong message. But that doesn’t mean halting or backing away from our tough social distancing measures,” Kim Gang-lip reiterated.

Since people’s vigilance about social distancing is starting to flag, the disease control authorities are planning to stiffen their requirements for allowing a return to daily routines. “South Korea’s reproduction number for transmission [of COVID-19] shot up to 6 or 7 before recently dropping to below 1, and I think that the reproduction number could be used as another requirement. We’ll be looking into setting the levels [necessary for transitioning to a routine-based approach],” said Jung Eun-kyeong, director of South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), on Monday. The disease control authorities also mean to take into account the regional distribution of patients and the capacity of healthcare networks.

Under the routine-based approach, if adopted, efforts to control the disease would continue while people are allowed to return to their normal routines. For such an approach to be effective, experts say, individual efforts will have to be accompanied by structural changes in society. The key guidelines for the routine-based approach to disease control that were released by the KCDC on Apr. 12 are as follows: staying at home for three or four days when sick, staying at least an arm span away from other people when meeting, washing hands frequently and thoroughly, covering one’s mouth with one’s sleeve when coughing, airing out buildings at least two times a day and frequently disinfecting them, and maintaining emotional closeness despite physical distance.

While some of these guidelines concern personal hygiene, others, including taking time off when sick, would be difficult to achieve through personal effort alone. But the government hasn’t provided any answers yet about how it would enforce those guidelines.

“The disease control authorities really need to hash out the guidelines with the people who will actually have to implement them at the workplace. Before the guidelines can be implemented, there will have to be a discussion about whether occupancy at nursing homes can be cut in half to maintain the distance between patients and how those homes will be compensated for the resulting financial losses,” said Eom Joong-sik, a professor of infectious diseases at Gachon University Gil Medical Center.

According to Eom, implementing the guidelines for routine-based disease control will require assessing facilities for their risk of infection and discussing what environmental changes might reduce that risk and how to handle the ensuing costs.

“The government needs to develop concrete guidelines for encouraging companies to make it easy for employees to take sick leave and providing support to companies whose employees can’t easily do their work online. It should also keep discussing potential incentives so companies will implement those guidelines,” said Gi Mo-ran, a professor of preventive medicine at the National Cancer Center and a member of a government committee in charge of planning for the transition to routine-based disease control.

By Park Da-hae and Park Jun-yong, staff reporters

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]