What is korea doing

Children under 2 years old do not need to test. Learn more about these requirements. All air passengers to the United States will also be required to provide contact information to airlines before boarding flights to the United States. This strengthens a travel process already in place to rapidly identify and contact people in the U. Access to travelers' contact information will allow U. You might feel well and not have any symptoms, but you can still be infected and spread the virus to others.

For this reason, CDC recommends the following:. Isolate yourself to protect others from getting infected. Learn what to do and when it is safe to be around others. If you recovered from a documented COVID infection within the past 90 days regardless of vaccination status , you do NOT need to get a test 3—5 days after travel.

Deaths, globally. Asia and the Middle East. About this data Reuters is collecting daily COVID infections and deaths data for countries and territories around the world, updated regularly throughout each day. The latest coronavirus news from Reuters What you need to know about the coronavirus right now Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:. Where U. New normal: How far is safe enough? Countries nearest the peak of their infection curve Average infections increasing over the last 2 weeks Those flagged based on their symptoms or responses to screening questions were tested and told to return home and self-quarantine while they waited for results, whereas those who were considered low risk received a day entrance pass.

Screening stations were set up in various strategic locations, including at Incheon International Airport. By September 22, there were screening stations, including 48 drive-through centers. To encourage full testing among migrant worker communities, where several clusters emerged, the government announced that it no longer required health workers to report known undocumented residents.

During the surge of cases in Daegu in February , health officials opened screening centers using innovative approaches to increase capacity. First, workers stood outside negative pressure booths wearing PPE. Eventually, they shifted to positive pressure booths, which minimized the need for PPE and thereby prevented fatigue.

Since March 15, the test positivity rate has been below 2 percent, and from April 6 to August 15, it was 1 percent or lower. During the second spike in August, the positivity rate peaked at 2. In late January , South Korea instituted special entry procedures for travelers coming from Wuhan. Procedures initially included designated entry lines and questionnaires and later expanded to include temperature checks, testing all travelers at the border, and mandatory quarantines monitored for 14 days.

Travelers without Korean residency are provided facilities for self-quarantine but must pay for the cost of their stay. This policy of tracing and quarantining, rather than restricting entry, is in line with recommendations from the WHO, whereas border closures are not. As case counts increased globally in the summer and fall of , South Korea tightened travel restrictions and as of October , requires visas for nearly all foreign nationals.

It suspended visa-waiver countries and visa-free countries, with some exceptions e. Visa applicants are required to submit forms about their health status and show symptom-free certification from a medical professional.

Overall, visitors to South Korea decreased by 81 percent year-over-year. In the early months of the pandemic, the South Korean government transformed public facilities and retreat centers owned by private corporations into temporary isolation wards.

It did this for two reasons: to care for COVID patients while preventing transmission within households, and to relieve hospitals of bed shortages. Health care workers regularly monitored and quarantined clinically stable patients who did not require inpatient treatment.

In Daegu, the site of the first cluster, 15 community treatment centers, including several in dormitories for training institutes of private companies such as Samsung and LG, admitted 3, people between March 3 and March 26, Health professionals monitored the centers and patients reported their symptoms regularly by a smartphone application or by phone.

Only 81 of 3, 2. People who have been in contact with a confirmed case, traveled internationally, or suspect they might be infected are required to self-quarantine.

Those in quarantine are required to use the Self-Quarantine Safety Protection app for 14 days. Case officers monitor the app, including location tracking, to identify when people break quarantine. At the same time, case officers provide support to make quarantine easier. Twice daily they check in with those who are self-quarantining, to deliver food and toiletries and offer psychological counseling and video-streaming services for entertainment.

South Korea has maintained a focus on mental health throughout the pandemic, creating hotlines and recordings for those in isolation as early as January and maintaining a national psychological support team. South Korea took an aggressive approach to contact tracing early in the outbreak.

First, they scaled up their network of contact tracers. Second, they gave these workers access to data beyond what they might be able to learn from a typical patient interview.

Third, they used public communications to empower citizens to assist the health system with contact tracing. South Korea expanded its usual workforce of Epidemic Intelligence Service EIS officers by quickly training staff at approximately local public health centers, hiring private epidemiologists, and leveraging staff at 11 nongovernmental organizations that train and support EIS officers.

This multilevel approach was effective, with the veteran EIS officers conducting the more difficult investigations in large clusters, and health facilities and temporary staff handling smaller clusters including families. These efforts led to earlier case detection, kept the rate of new infections low, and potentially reduced estimated mortality rates by preventing hospital overcrowding and infections among high-risk populations. When necessary, the officers were permitted to draw on four major types of information in addition to patient and doctor interviews:.

This information was combined with interviews and cross-checked with other data to trace contacts and take appropriate containment measures. On June 10, , the country introduced an additional system called KI-Pass to help contact tracing efforts after outbreaks at several high-risk locations. The system introduces QR codes at high-traffic facilities like bars and gyms to replace manual sign-in sheets.

South Korea encourages compliance with containment efforts by developing apps that collected relevant data, which eases the burden on EIS officers and made it possible for them to cope with the high volume of investigations. Patient trajectories are made public to enable citizens to track their own movements compared with those of suspected cases.

Traveler information is shared with health facilities and pharmacies to facilitate prompt identification of cases and contacts. Korea has a three-tiered social distancing system with half levels i. These levels are adjusted based on metrics including the number of cases and rate of change.