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After 26 days of remote education, students at an elementary school in Seoul’s Gangdong District go to school for in-person classes on Sept. 21. (Baek So-ah, staff photographer)

After South Korea reported its first suspected case of reinfection by the novel coronavirus on Sept. 20, the analysis offered by disease control authorities is that “the proliferation of different viruses means that people can be repeatedly infected by the coronavirus, just as with the flu.”

Jung Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KCDA), addressed the suspected reinfection during the regular press briefing on Sept. 21. “It’s possible for people to be reinfected with COVID-19 after it undergoes partial mutations, just as with influenza or the ordinary coronaviruses that cause the common cold. People can be infected again because immunity doesn’t persist for our entire lives,” Jung said.

The person thought to have been reinfected is a 20-something woman living in Seoul. When she was first hospitalized for COVID-19 in early March, she tested positive for the V clade, or strain, of the coronavirus virus; when she tested positive again, a week after being discharged from the hospital, it turned out that she’d been infected with the GH clade.

But Jung noted that this incident “cannot be definitely said to be reinfection,” explaining that “since the patient was readmitted to the hospital after such a short time, she may not have been able to produce enough antibodies.” When the patient was first admitted to the hospital, she showed mild symptoms, such as coughing and phlegm, and was discharged after about 20 days. After presenting the same symptoms and testing positive once again, she was readmitted, though this time around her symptoms were reportedly milder than before.

Thus far, there have been five or so confirmed cases of reinfection with COVID-19 around the world. “So far, reinfection is extremely rare. And since the GH clade accounts for most of the cases in Korea, I don’t think that reinfection would be very common,” Jung said. South Korea has seen a total of 705 cases in which people who have fully recovered from COVID-19 have still tested positive for the coronavirus when tests detected dead viral fragments that remained in the body.

In her briefing, Jung also addressed concerns that any vaccine or other treatments that are developed may not block 100% of infections. “Since the efficacy of vaccines and treatments depends on their operational mechanism, one couldn’t flatly say [that they’re ineffective]. This is still a novel coronavirus, so continuing observation and research is needed on the question of what mutations will arise and what impact they will have on reinfection, immunity, and the production of antibodies,” she said.

On Monday, the South Korean authorities reported 70 new cases of COVID-19. Since 82 cases were reported on Sunday, this was the second day in a row that the daily caseload remained below a hundred. The tally included 55 local infections, the lowest number in 39 days, since 47 were reported on Aug. 13.

“This partly reflects lower levels of testing over the weekend, but since the tally is lower than last Monday, the downward trend is stabilizing,” said Yoon Tae-ho, head of the disease control team at Korea’s Central Disaster Response Headquarter.

But Korea is continuing to see sporadic clusters of infections. The number of cases at the Bumin campus of Dong-a University rose to 12 on Monday, with the first cases identified on Sept. 19. All but one of the infected individuals were part of the same academic department and student club. The route of transmission hasn’t been identified yet, but the city of Busan is investigating bars and restaurants near campus and the faculty cafeteria in the international building on the assumption that many people came into contact with infected individuals there. After cases were reported, the Bumin campus moved all classes online and closed its dormitories.

On Sept. 25, the South Korean authorities plan to release detailed guidelines for a special disease control campaign lasting from Sept. 28 to Oct. 11. That time frame includes a long holiday around the Chuseok harvest festival, when Koreans traditionally take to the road to visit family and relatives. The guidelines are expected to be somewhat stricter than Level 2 of social distancing.

By Kwon Ji-dam, staff reporter, and Kim Yeong-dong, Busan correspondent

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