尹, 코로나 엔데믹 선언 길었던 3년4개월의 팬데믹, 어땠나?

Starting from cluster infections among religious groups, to the mask shortage crisis, and even to the shutdown of private gatherings, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought evident changes to our daily lives.
Kim Mok-yeon gives us a recap of how we lived with COVID for the past three years.

Three years and four months.
That's how long it took for South Korea to practically declare an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Back in January 2020, COVID-19 first hit Korean shores when a Chinese woman who entered the country from Wuhan first tested possitive.
From that point it took only a month before the virus spread to the point it was a national emergency.

"We decided to raise the national crisis level to 'red' from the current 'orange'."

This was sparked by a massive cluster infection from the Shincheonji religious group near the Daegu area.


"I am so distressed by this. I bow to you in apology."

The virus was spreading rapidly across many other parts of the world, too, prompting the World Health Organization to declare the official start of a pandemic.
It led countries to deploy social distancing measures, delay weddings and other once-in-a-lifetime celebrations with no end in sight.


"95 percent of weddings until early April have been canceled, COVID-19 being the reason for all of them. In my seven-year career, I've never seen this happening, not even during the 2015 MERS outbreak."

At this point people could only rely on face masks for protection, but at first there weren't enough of them.


"They're all sold out. Masks are so scarce now that you could say someone with no money but with masks is well off."

The government stepped up and deployed a mask rationing system that allowed each person to buy only two masks a week to prevent hoarding.
As situation spiraled out of control, the nation watched on as its frontline medical workers made noble sacrifices.


"Its tough, but what else can we do but hope for everyone to recover soon and go on "

But the back-and-forth cluster infections from religious groups and late-night entertainment venues continued, prompting health authorities to impose stricter social distancing measures in mid-2021, allowing no more than two people to meet after 6 PM.

Even so, COVID-19 continued to take many lives by mutating into different variants, from the original Alpha, to Delta and the more transmissible Omicron.
But vaccines evolved as well, and the population gradually gained immunity.
Now some three years later, and the government is set to declare COVID-19 endemic, lifting the majority of the quarantine restrictions from June.
People in South Korea will now be able to return to their normal, pre-pandemic lives.

Kim Mok-yeon, Arirang News.

#COVID19 #Corona_virus #Measures #Infection #Prevention #Endemic #WHO #오미크론 #팬데믹 #정부 #코로나19 #세계보건기구 #전염병 #질병 #엔데믹 #Arirang_News #아리랑뉴스

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2023-05-11, 21:00 (KST)

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