South Korea has entered its 2nd wave of coronavirus. What can Canada learn?
So what can Canada learn from South Korea’s waves so far? Experts say it should serve as an example of how to test and what to look out for after reopening.
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In order for there to be a second wave, there needs to be a severe case increase in an area where the virus appeared to have been naturally wiped out, and return as a new variation of itself, Winnipeg epidemiologist Cynthia Carr told Global News.
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Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, said there are lessons to be learned from both of South Korea’s COVID-19 waves. “To stop a pandemic, when it’s less contagious, it turns out you can do it two ways,” he said. “You can lock everyone down or you can test everyone. And you’ve got to commit fully to at least one of those.”
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“What we could learn is public health messaging needs to be developed and targeted to that age group. Twenty-somethings know that they’re not likely to die from this,” Furness said, adding that opening a nightclub without completely reducing the rate of infection down to zero is “a really bad cue to a group that is already engaging in risky behaviour.”
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However, there are some areas where South Korea excelled that can be considered real teaching moments for Canada. Zahid Butt, an infectious disease expert and assistant professor at the University of Waterloo, said South Korea was a champion of contact tracing, which involves tracing an infection person-by-person and keeping them away from other people to prevent further spread.
South Korea Caught in Endless Coronavirus Whack-a-Mole
South Korea long ago flattened its Covid-19 curve. But the staying power of the virus in the country, which has widespread testing and aggressive contact tracing, shows the difficulties with fully tamping down new infections, as governments remove public-health guardrails that had lowered the contagion risks. "It's like a whack-a-mole that won't end until the vaccine comes out," said Alex Greninger, an assistant director of the University of Washington's virology division in Seattle.
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"Reopening does not mean waving a victory flag and going back to normal, " said Josip Car, a population health expert at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, who has done work with the World Health Organization. "A one-off lockdown may not be enough to stem the Covid-19 pandemic."
Few other hard-hit places thought it had as thoroughly ridded itself of coronavirus as South Korea. The country of 52 million people relaxed social-distancing measures seven weeks ago -- after several days of no local transmissions -- becoming one of the first countries to open back up. Since then, South Korea has contended with a stream of infection clusters, largely around the Seoul metropolitan area.
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It was an unexpected dynamic. But the city of Seoul adopted anonymous testing, where individuals didn't have to leave their name but only their phone number. Testing numbers rose eightfold in the days after the switch, Mayor Park said.
COVID and the Classroom: Lessons on Reopening from Asia
…Despite these measures, some schools have closed after reopening, especially in areas where clusters of COVID-19 cases have been identified. As of June 29, only 36 schools in South Korea remain closed, down from more than 500 in early June.
Students file suit for tuition cuts as pandemic disrupts learning
South Korean university students have joined together to file a class action lawsuit against the Ministry of Education and schools, seeking partial tuition refunds for disruptions to learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Movement for Tuition Refunds, a student group formed by the National University Student Council, held a press briefing on Wednesday in front of the Seoul Central District Court to call on universities to refund part of their spring tuition. Some 3,500 students from 42 universities nationwide have participated in the class action lawsuit, according to the group.
S.Korea completes phased school reopening
This put all the 5.95 million students below the higher education level back at school, plus pre-schoolers, more than three months after the start of school was put on hold due to the new coronavirus pandemic. But only one-third or two-thirds of them will actually be attending classes, with schools set to mix schedules for in-person classes and remote learning due to limited space for keeping a distance among students.
Students move to take legal action against universities refusing to refund tuition
Students demanding tuition refunds, citing a drop in the quality of education due to the shift to online classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic, are taking legal action against universities that have not moved to refund tuition. The students and universities remain sharply divided over the issue of reserve funds as a resource for refunding tuition.
Should Schools Reopen?
… South Korea is helping schools open day care centers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or longer, Su-Hyun Lee, who’s based in Seoul, said. … The U.S., by contrast, is suffering through by far the worst coronavirus outbreak of any affluent country, and the federal government has done little to help schools reopen.
Summary of School Re-Opening Models and Implementation Approaches During the COVID 19 Pandemic
… Schools in South Korea began re-opening in late May, 2020. In the Seoul metropolitan area, limits have been placed on the proportion of the student populations allowed to be present at one time, with high schools limited to two-thirds of their student population and kindergartens, elementary, middle, and special education schools limited to one-third of their students at a time. Physical distancing measures have been put in place, including the use of plastic desktop dividers in classrooms and lunchrooms inmany schools. The Korean CDC asked all school staff and students to wear face masks in school and to follow hygiene measures like coughing into their arms and washing hands. Temperature checks are required upon entering school buildings. In the event that someone inside a school is confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2 infection, all staff and students are sent home wearing masks and an epidemiological investigation and disinfection is initiated. Soon after the start of re-opening, a number of schools closed again and others postponed re-opening in response to a surge in new COVID-19 cases.
Austrade regional market update on the impact of COVID-19 (as at 14 July 2020)
Korea has released Study Australia promotional Youtube video: Journey to Study Australia via Austrade's Study AU Official Youtube. The video has been viewed by 3.3K+ viewers since uploaded on 25th June 2020. It has 130+ "likes" and 46 comments & suggestions by Korean students which are all very positive.
South Korea Closed Schools Again Just Days After Reopening
As the entire world grapples with the question of when and how to reopen schools safely, many countries have been looking to places like South Korea, which has been successful at containing the coronavirus, as an example of what to do. But while the country planned to widely reopen educational centers for kids, it just delayed many of those openings — and closed hundreds of schools just days after they had reopened — amid a new spike in COVID-19 cases.
Samsung looks to universities for help with chips, displays
The company said the expansion of its joint cooperation program this year is particularly important as the world currently faces the Covid-19 crises. There has been growing concern at schools about the cutting of research budgets due to the outbreak. The program provides free use of infrastructure, including high-tech semiconductor facilities. Samsung said it is offering free use of its facilities so that these researchers can achieve results that can be used practically in industries.
Kids Get Coronavirus, But Do They Spread It? We'll Find Out When Schools Reopen
…Other recent research suggests that the age of children may be a factor. Data from contact tracing in South Korea suggest that older children are more likely to spread the virus to their close contacts compared to younger children, particularly in a home setting. Researchers analyzed thousands of contacts of about 5,700 coronavirus patients (from January through March of 2020), looking at the age of the first infected person in a household. In homes where the first person infected in a cluster was 10 to 19, about 19% of their household contacts got COVID-19. In contrast, only 5.3% of the household contacts of younger children aged 0 to 9 were known to be infected.
Older Children Spread the Coronavirus Just as Much as Adults, Large Study Finds
The study of nearly 65,000 people in South Korea suggests that school reopenings will trigger more outbreaks.
More universities endorse case for tuition refunds for classes disrupted by pandemic
More South Korean universities are positively responding to the demand for partial tuition refunds to compensate students for disrupted learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pandemic’s ‘uneven’ impact on college hopefuls
High school seniors fear becoming casualty of coronavirus in college admissions; repeaters argue everybody’s suffering.
Universities grapple with cheating in online tests
More universities have considered conducting onsite exams for the second semester amid growing concerns over cheating on online tests, according to school officials, Monday. While controversy over fairness of online exams is growing as some students argue that tests should be taken in person, others raise concerns over possible infections.
Learning gap: school’s new coronavirus challenge
With schools expected to continue mostly online in the fall, worries grow over a widening achievement gap.
COVID in the classroom won’t kill your kids — but keeping them at home could | Opinion
[A] large-scale study in South Korea found that the younger children are, the less danger they face from the virus. And yet the school approach to reopening schools thus far has been upside down from the data.