Former Kern resident says we should heed South Korea
Weeks into self-isolation, many are wondering when the new coronavirus pandemic will be over and life can return to normal.
With that said, cases continue to rise both locally and nationally, and COVID-19 hasn’t shown signs of slowing down.
The situation couldn’t be more different in South Korea, where the number of new cases reported each day has sharply declined since early March. While the risk of a resurgence remains, the country appears to be on track to all but eliminating the virus.
One former Kern County resident who now resides in South Korea, Isaiah Perez, is urging Americans to follow in his adopted country’s footsteps.
“Probably the hardest thing for me is just the way that people are politicizing this. On a personal level, I’m not a Trump supporter, but I just cannot believe that people are wanting him to fail with this,” Perez said. “We’re so fractured as a country. I’m really, really, encouraging people to put aside the politics, and even the religion, and say we’re in this together.”
Perez, the brother of Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez, has lived in South Korea on and off since 2007. He owns and operates Korea Medical Tour, a medical tourism business in Seoul, the capital and largest city in the country.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus, Perez has marveled at the difference between each country’s reaction. While the first instances of COVID-19 were reported in both South Korea
and the United States on nearly the same day, Perez says Koreans have rallied together to stamp out the virus without needing to resort to country-wide quarantines or mass shutdowns of businesses.
“To say that they flattened the curve would be an understatement,” he said. “If you look at it, it’s like a freaking plateau.”
Through rigorously tracking contagious individuals’ movements, and informing anyone who may have come in contact with them to get tested or self-isolate through a phone app, the South Korean government has been able to stem the tide of COVID-19. Only Daegu, a city of around 2.5 million southeast of Seoul, has needed to enact emergency measures to keep the virus from running rampant among its citizens.
Perez said 90 percent of businesses remain open and the streets are filled with people. Although Perez has been self-isolating with his family in recent months out of caution, he says they can still go out to the movies if they start feeling cooped up.
“When you go into any shop the first thing they have at the door is hand sanitizer, so it’s just a lot safer,” he said.
As the United States continues to battle coronavirus by instituting lockdowns and self-isolation measures, Perez urged Americans to work together to stamp out COVID-19.
“We’re one country,” he said. “Follow what the government is telling you. Let’s get through this together.”