Dataset Information

Effective Control of COVID-19 in South Korea: Cross-Sectional Study of Epidemiological Data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

South Korea is one of the few countries that has succeeded in flattening the curve of new COVID-19 cases and avoiding a second outbreak by implementing multiple strategies, ranging from an individual level to the population level.

Objective

We aim to discuss the unique strategies and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in South Korea and present a summary of policies implemented by the Korean government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We designed a cross-sectional study of epidemiological data published by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on October 1, 2020. We analyzed detailed epidemiological information of COVID-19 cases, including the number of confirmed cases and resulting deaths.

Results

As of October 1, 2020, a total of 23,889 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 415 deaths were reported in South Korea. In this paper, we present data on the epidemiological characteristics and transmission of the disease and discuss how the South Korean government, health care providers, and society responded to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Conclusions

Understanding the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in South Korea and the government's successful efforts in managing the spread of the disease can provide important insights to other countries dealing with the ongoing pandemic.

SUBMITTER: Jeong GH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7732355 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Effective Control of COVID-19 in South Korea: Cross-Sectional Study of Epidemiological Data.

Jeong Gwang Hun GH Lee Hyo Jeong HJ Lee Jinhee J Lee Jun Young JY Lee Keum Hwa KH Han Young Joo YJ Yoon Sojung S Ryu Seohyun S Kim Da Kyung DK Park Myung Bae MB Yang Jae Won JW Effenberger Maria M Eisenhut Michael M Hong Sung Hwi SH Kronbichler Andreas A Ghayda Ramy Abou RA Shin Jae Il JI

Journal of medical Internet research 20201210 12

<h4>Background</h4>South Korea is one of the few countries that has succeeded in flattening the curve of new COVID-19 cases and avoiding a second outbreak by implementing multiple strategies, ranging from an individual level to the population level.<h4>Objective</h4>We aim to discuss the unique strategies and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in South Korea and present a summary of policies implemented by the Korean government during the COVID-19 pandemic.<h4>Methods</h4>We designed a ...[more]

PMID: 33151893

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Project description:Countries around the world have taken control measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, including Korea. Social distancing is considered an essential strategy to reduce transmission in the absence of vaccination or treatment. While interventions have been successful in controlling COVID-19 in Korea, maintaining the current restrictions incurs great social costs. Thus, it is important to analyze the impact of different polices on the spread of the epidemic. To model the COVID-19 outbreak, we use an extended age-structured SEIR model with quarantine and isolation compartments. The model is calibrated to age-specific cumulative confirmed cases provided by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Four control measures-school closure, social distancing, quarantine, and isolation-are investigated. Because the infectiousness of the exposed has been controversial, we study two major scenarios, considering contributions to infection of the exposed, the quarantined, and the isolated. Assuming the transmission rate would increase more than 1.7 times after the end of social distancing, a second outbreak is expected in the first scenario. The epidemic threshold for increase of contacts between teenagers after school reopening is 3.3 times, which brings the net reproduction number to 1. The threshold values are higher in the second scenario. If the average time taken until isolation and quarantine reduces from three days to two, cumulative cases are reduced by 60% and 47% in the first scenario, respectively. Meanwhile, the reduction is 33% and 41%, respectively, for rapid isolation and quarantine in the second scenario. Without social distancing, a second wave is possible, irrespective of whether we assume risk of infection by the exposed. In the non-infectivity of the exposed scenario, early detection and isolation are significantly more effective than quarantine. Furthermore, quarantining the exposed is as important as isolating the infectious when we assume that the exposed also contribute to infection.

Project description:BackgroundAs of January 2022, the number of people infected with COVID-19 worldwide has exceeded 350 million. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, people are affected in a wide range of areas of life, which in turn causes numerous psychological problems. Depression is a serious problem for people who have suffered from COVID-19. Depression can worsen COVID-19 precautionary behavior compliance or the health behavior itself. In addition, these depressive symptoms may have different characteristics depending on the individual's gender.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine whether depression is a factor that may affect COVID-19 fear, precautionary behavior compliance, and health behavior, and how these characteristic trends differ by gender.MethodsThis was a secondary analysis of data from the 2020 Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS), a national cross-sectional survey conducted with complex sampling analysis. In 2020, the KCHS included COVID-19-related questions. For this study, we used the KCHS data from both the COVID-19-related questions and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scale. After weighting the data according to the KCHS guidelines, we calculated the distribution of men and women according to depression level. The data were collected using multiple-choice questions related to precautionary behavior compliance, COVID-19-related fears, and health behavior changes.ResultsOf the 204,787 participants, those who were clinically depressed had a greater tendency to not comply with precautionary behaviors. Regarding COVID-19, "fear" showed a decreasing trend in both men (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.72, 95% CI 0.61-0.83) and women (AOR 0.74, 95% CI 0.63-0.86) with clinically relevant depression. Moreover, for both men and women, health behaviors deteriorated as depression intensified; the AOR for sleep duration changes was 2.28 (95% CI 2.00-2.59) in men and was 2.15 (95% CI 1.96-2.36) in women. Notably, the responses of clinically depressed women revealed a doubled increase in both their drinking (AOR 2.25, 95% CI 1.88-2.70) and smoking (AOR 2.71, 95% CI 1.95-3.77) habits compared with those of nondepressed women.ConclusionsBoth men and women with more severe depression were more likely to violate precautionary health behaviors as their depression worsened. Health behaviors also deteriorated for both genders, but women tended to show a greater change. Therefore, additional studies and interventions for vulnerable groups such as severely depressed people are needed. More research is also necessary to develop interventions based on statistical comparisons of men and women.

Dataset Information

Effective Control of COVID-19 in South Korea: Cross-Sectional Study of Epidemiological Data.

Background

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Effective Control of COVID-19 in South Korea: Cross-Sectional Study of Epidemiological Data.

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