COVID-19 in Korea: Success Based on Past Failure*

Byeongho, Lim; Hong, Emma Kyoungseo; Mou, Jinjin; Cheong, Inkyo

doi:10.1162/asep_a_00803

Cited by 39 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Sachs (2020) compared the infection rate in the Asia-Pacific region to that in the North Atlantic and found personal hygiene and maintaining a safe distance to be more effective than stringent lockdown protocols. Lim et al (2020) showed how Korea triumphantly managed to contain the massive COVID-19 outbreak in just two months. In Korea, the quarantine was successful without a stringent lockdown because people were actively following quarantine guidelines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Did Japan Cope with COVID-19? Big Data and Purchasing Behavior*

Konishi

Saitō

Toshiki

et al. 2021

Asian Economic Papers

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Japan has been recognized as having successfully controlled the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. This study aims to gather insights to combat the spread of infection in our daily lives by observing our purchasing behavior. We use Point of Sales (POS) data from supermarkets, convenience stores, home centers, drug stores, and electronics retail stores for a nationwide analysis. Our analysis revealed the following. First, the Japanese people actively prevented the spread of infection by voluntarily wearing masks, using alcohol-based disinfectants, and gargling. Second, they willingly stayed home during the semi-lockdown. Third, they continued to purchase infection prevention essentials during periods of both low and high levels of infection. We conclude that continuing to wear masks, wash and sanitize hands, and gargle, along with spending more time at home to maintain safe distancing, will be effective in reducing the spread of the virus and combatting the pandemic. Finally, the infections and deaths were primarily concentrated in the metropolitan area and Kansai region, where the nature of the spread of the infection was different from that in small and middle-sized prefectures.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Did Japan Cope with COVID-19? Big Data and Purchasing Behavior*

Konishi

Saitō

Toshiki

et al. 2021

Asian Economic Papers

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“…In Australia and New Zealand, which were in winter season in this period, this reduction has been attributed to fewer deaths from seasonal flu due to reduced contact among people [6][7][8][9] . Chile, the other southern hemisphere country in our analysis, had 12% (8-17) higher mortality in the first wave, followed by an even larger increase of 21% (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26) during the (southern hemisphere) winter period.…”

mentioning

confidence: 72%

“…Iceland, Norway and South Korea did not close their borders but put in place various forms and durations of quarantine/isolation and testing for travellers. They also effectively integrated their well-coordinated public health capabilities 20 with modern biomedical (e.g., genomics) and digital technologies (e.g., data from credit card transactions, mobile phones and CCTV footage), and did widespread symptomatic and asymptomatic testing to identify, track and isolate infected individuals and their contacts, and to successfully suppress the epidemic 14,[21][22][23][24][25][26] , with additional restrictions only when there was a surge in infections. All three countries also have a strong healthcare system that continued to provide routine care alongside care for Covid-19 patients.…”

Section: Implications For 2021-2022mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learned and lessons missed: Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on all-cause mortality in 40 industrialised countries prior to mass vaccination

Kontis

Bennett

Parks

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Industrialised countries have varied in their early response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and how they have adapted to new situations and knowledge since the pandemic began. These variations in preparedness and policy may lead to different death tolls from Covid-19 as well as from other diseases. We applied an ensemble of 16 Bayesian probabilistic models to vital statistics data to estimate the impacts of the pandemic on weekly all-cause mortality for 40 industrialised countries from mid-February 2020 through mid-February 2021, before a large segment of the population was vaccinated in any of these countries. Taken over the entire year, an estimated 1,401,900 (95% credible interval 1,259,700-1,572,500) more people died in these 40 countries than would have been expected had the pandemic not taken place. This is equivalent to 140 (126-157) additional deaths per 100,000 people and a 15% (13-17) increase in deaths over this period in all of these countries combined. In Iceland, Australia and New Zealand, mortality was lower over this period than what would be expected if the pandemic had not occurred, while South Korea and Norway experienced no detectable change in mortality. In contrast, the populations of the USA, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland experienced at least 20% higher mortality. There was substantial heterogeneity across countries in the dynamics of excess mortality. The first wave of the pandemic, from mid-February to the end of May 2020, accounted for over half of excess deaths in Scotland, Spain, England and Wales, Canada, Sweden, Belgium and Netherlands. At the other extreme, the period between mid-September 2020 and mid-February 2021 accounted for over 90% of excess deaths in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Latvia, Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Until the great majority of national and global populations have vaccine-acquired immunity, minimising the death toll of the pandemic from Covid-19 and other diseases will remain dependent on actions to delay and contain infections and continue routine health and social care.

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“…Full lockdowns, for instance, are necessary, not only to be able to hold the pandemic at bay but to buy time for the health system to organize its response to the virus and become adequately capacitated. For instance, South Korea, having developed a systematic institutional response to infectious diseases after failing to properly deal with the MERS in 2015, did not have to resort to a national lockdown and instead used large-scale testing, contact tracing, and mandated self-isolation (considered "milder" NPIs) in the early phase of the outbreak (Lim et al 2020). Vietnam, whose first coronavirus death happened as late as 27 July and whose "very rapid and very well-organized" non-high-tech response was honed from having had many outbreaks of infectious diseases over the past 20 years, likewise relied on testing, aggressive contact tracing, and a mass multifaceted public health campaign but also on strict border controls and precisely targeted lockdowns.…”

Section: Motivation and Thesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking “Economic Fundamentals” in an Era of Global Physical Shocks: Insights from the Philippines Experience with COVID-19*

Monsod

Gochoco-Bautista

2021

Asian Economic Papers

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Having “strong macroeconomic fundamentals”, as the Philippines supposedly did pre-COVID-19, matters much less (if at all), in and of itself, to economic outcomes in the context of a physical shock. Using a model for 21 countries in ASEAN + 3, developing East Asia and South Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand to explain the difference in actual 2019 and forecasted 2020 GDP growth, we find that, ceteris paribus, stronger national capacities to detect and respond to emerging outbreaks, in particular, laboratory capacity, are associated with better short term economic outcomes. For the Philippines, up to 3.6 percentage points in lost GDP growth forecasted in 2020 could have been saved. Our results suggest that a dearth in health system capacity should be prioritized over and above any other type of spending, including traditional stimulus (e.g. large-scale infrastructure) spending. Our results also underscore the need to rethink what is necessary for the stability and resilience of an economy – what are the “economic fundamentals” - in an era of global physical shocks, including those brought about by climate hazards. Given physical shocks, efficient and prepared government institutions matter. A macro economy is not resilient if these are not.

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COVID-19 in Korea: Success Based on Past Failure*

Cited by 39 publications

References 3 publications

How Did Japan Cope with COVID-19? Big Data and Purchasing Behavior*

How Did Japan Cope with COVID-19? Big Data and Purchasing Behavior*

Lessons learned and lessons missed: Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on all-cause mortality in 40 industrialised countries prior to mass vaccination

Rethinking “Economic Fundamentals” in an Era of Global Physical Shocks: Insights from the Philippines Experience with COVID-19*

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