National Response to COVID-19 in the Republic of Korea and Lessons Learned for Other Countries

Abstract

In the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) had the second highest number of cases globally yet was able to dramatically lower the incidence of new cases and sustain a low mortality rate, making it a promising example of strong national response. We describe the main strategies undertaken and selected facilitators and challenges in order to identify transferable lessons for other countries working to control the spread and impact of COVID-19. Identified strategies included early recognition of the threat and rapid activation of national response protocols led by national leadership; rapid establishment of diagnostic capacity; scale-up of measures for preventing community transmission; and redesigning the triage and treatment systems, mobilizing the necessary resources for clinical care. Facilitators included existing hospital capacity, the epidemiology of the COVID-19 outbreak, and strong national leadership despite political changes and population sensitization due to the 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemic. Challenges included sustaining adequate human resources and supplies in high-caseload areas. Key recommendations include (1) recognize the problem, (2) establish diagnostic capacity, (3) implement aggressive measures to prevent community transmission, (4) redesign and reallocate clinical resources for the new environment, and (5) work to limit economic impact through and while prioritizing controlling the spread and impact of COVID-19. South Korea's strategies to prevent, detect, and respond to the pandemic represent applicable knowledge that can be adopted by other countries and the global community facing the enormous COVID-19 challenges ahead.

Mortality, Severity, and Hospital Admission Among COVID-19 Patients with ACEI/ARB Use: A Meta-analysis Stratifying Countries Based on Response to the First Wave of the Pandemic

“…A similar pattern emerges with the UK study by Bean et al in which the country experienced their rst wave prior to lockdown measures [1,14,17,16]. Studies in France, Italy, China, Denmark, Spain and Korea were also conducted in their rst wave; however, in contrast, during that time they had already implemented multiple NPI strategies (including a national lockdown) to mitigate the impact of the pandemic [1,18,19]. Based on our analysis, two of these countries (France and China) saw a decrease in mortality among ACEI/ARB users (shown in Figure 2).…”

“…With aggressive measures that included contact tracing to prevent community transmissibility, South Korea reported the largest numbers of cases in the rst two months of the pandemic. Among other factors, these large numbers of cases did not translate into increased mortality among ACEI/ARB users [19].…”

Integrating implementation science into covid-19 response and recovery

“…South Korea and the UK show this well, having implemented similar evidence based interventions for the covid-19 pandemic at different speeds and with implementation strategies that had different contexts and differing results. South Korea responded successfully, rapidly implementing key interventions for pandemic control, including widespread testing, early contact tracing, building health system capacity, and community education 9. Its implementation strategies reflected the nature of the epidemic (first wave and concentrated), a strong health system and public health capacity and capability, and receptive sociopolitical and community attitudes based on experience with SARS.…”

The COVID-19 Pandemic in Francophone West Africa: From the First Cases to Responses in Seven Countries

“…It has been estimated that the peak of cases in Senegal would occur between 28 May and 15 June 2020 [8]. However, these are all estimates and, at the time of writing this article, we still have little data on the reality of the state of the epidemic in Africa [9,10] in contrast with the countries that were rst affected [11,12] nor do we have ample data on the effect of public measures, which have been adapted in various ways to their national contexts [1,4,9,13,14]. As of 21st July 2020, CDC Africa estimates that there were 736,288 cases of COVID-19 in Africa and 15,418 deaths, representing only 5% of all reported cases worldwide.…”