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COVID-19 and Lesson from South Korea: 4T’s to Adopt and 3C’s to Avoid

Since initial reports of Covid-19 began rolling in from Wuhan (China) in December 2019, the virus has continued to spread and this has resulted in the numbers among infected and new patients sky-rocketing on a global scale. Day by day studies indicated the rise and spread of covid-19, which pursued chaos and panic among nations whilst creating a major challenge for the health care facilities and governments across the globe.

Considering the provided data and the urgency of sustaining public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) eventually gave us a briefing of the situation on 30 January 2020.

WHO declared that: “The COVID-19 outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern”

Globally, as of 5:34 PM CET, 18 November 2020, there have been 55,326,907 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 1,333,742 deaths, reported by WHO


Confirmed Cases (High Blue Color Intensity means more cases)


Confirmed Deaths (High Color Intensity means more deaths)

The staggering number of deaths in the overall death toll across various parts of the world eventually led the national governments to implement a conclusive public lock-down. There’s no doubt that lockdown is the final blow in preventing a major catastrophe due to this virus. However, several nations are facing economical disasters due to numerous reasons, primarily due to the trading disturbance through local, regional, or international level restrictions.


How South Korea Prevented Lockdowns?

There are several effective strategies and lessons the world can learn from South Korea.

In a recent clinical symposium at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), Youngmee Jee, MD, PhD, of the Center for Immunology and Pathology at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Cheongju revealed the country strategy during COVID-19.


She emphasized in her talk about the role of:

  • Whole of Government Approach
  • Partnerships between Public and Private Sectors

Firstly, she briefed that the government should take over as a whole and then make respective decisions in order to control the situation in light of health advisors and data analysts. Secondly, the private sectors must abide by the law in association with public institutions.

What are the 4 T’s to Adopt?

It includes:

  1. Test
  2. Trace
  3. Treat
  4. Transparency

By early February, there was a fast extension of testing labs, with turnaround time being 24 hours, similar to "need-based free testing of asymptomatic individuals" in the huge city of Seoul. A keen global positioning framework essentially reduced time for an epidemiological examination. They even updated emergency clinics, with assigned irresistible sickness medical clinics for COVID-19 and network therapy places for mild cases. The transparency approach is comprised of twice the everyday press briefings.

What are the 3C’s to Avoid?

It Includes:

  1. Crowd Places
  2. Close-Contact Settings
  3. Confined and Enclosed Spacing

Additionally, several recreational places such as bars, gyms, and businesses deemed unnecessary were shuttered down. Mask wearing was mandatory indoor and outdoor as well. Every incoming traveler was subjected to isolation for two weeks, whether they tested positive for COVID-19 or not.

These are the effective measures; we all need to ponder upon!