Remarkable pandemic response prompts look at South Korea

Without modern precedent, the rapid and evolving response to the COVID-19 pandemic is rooted in a simple principle: We give the virus fewer targets by physically distancing ourselves, relentless handwashing and staying inside.

And for good reason. As easily transmissible as the common cold through respiratory droplets, this virus is much worse than a cold or the seasonal flu.

While it can infect anyone, a preliminary review done on the last month’s American cases by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that between 1.8 and 3.4 per cent of all infected patients died. And while many infected people had minor symptoms, 15 to 20 per cent of infected adults were admitted to hospital; and of those patients 12 to 50 per cent needed intensive care unit (ICU) treatment. The higher range numbers are for patients aged 65 to 84.

Doing nothing is not an option. If we ignore the risk, even with infection rates lower than the common cold, based on simple math the coronavirus would quickly overwhelm Saskatchewan’s 3,100 hospital and 109 ICU beds and risk the efforts (and even lives) of many valiant professionals.

This explains why an entire society is on a war footing and, generally, it has brought out the best in people, who have put personal inconvenience and, in some cases, considerable loss aside for something bigger and more important. Public health officials have done a creditable job of walking the line between creating public panic on one hand, and permitting complacency on the other. The middle course is being informed, cautious and committed to doing your part.

But in the coming days, as the numbers will worsen, we will hear more about South Korea. With just 13 million more people than Canada, South Korea was hit early, following the outbreak of the coronavirus in China, but has stabilized its infection rates and deaths while countries like Italy, Spain, and increasingly the U.S. are under siege.

Having learned lessons from its 2015 failure to contain a MERS outbreak, South Korea took an aggressive approach, which Science magazine describes as “the most expansive and wellorganized testing program in the world.” With 360,000 tests completed, South Korea started testing people with symptoms and then moved to indiscriminate, mass testing, which resulted in the discovery of many asymptomatic patients.

According to the Wall Street Journal, South Korea has tested at least 20,000 people a day at 633 testing sites, even at nationwide roadside drive-thru testing tents. Test results are texted to patients within a day and citizens use a smartphone app with GPS mapping locators that track the spread of the infection, even notifying users when they’re within 100 metres of an infected location.

The tests are followed up by rigorous contact tracing where infected people and anyone they have come in contact with are identified, isolated, quarantined and closely monitored. At the same time, high level anti-infection procedures are followed anywhere that vulnerable people are, from nursing homes and care centres to the families of people with compromised health.

While South Koreans have endured some of the same things we have, as businesses have closed, and there’s been working from home, kids off school and life in seclusion, they have taken the battle straight to COVID-19 and knocked down the infection rates and deaths.

There are hopeful signs in Canada that we’re overcoming the testing challenge with more than 130,000 tests completed, a promise of 10,000 per day, and orders placed for two types of diagnostic test kits — one from Switzerland, the other from a U.S. company — that will enable faster detection of the virus, and results processed in hours.

The sooner we get on top of this virus, the sooner our lives and economy can return, the damage repaired and this remarkable chapter of our lives put behind us.

John Gormley is a broadcaster, lawyer, author and former Progressive Conservative MP whose radio talk show is heard weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on 650 CKOM Saskatoon and 980 CJME Regina.