Public Advised to Be Calm Over Flu Alert
By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
The government's announcement Tuesday to deal with the influenza A virus pursuant to the highest alert level for a contagious disease was met with a mixed reaction from citizens, hospitals and schools. The red level is the highest on the country's four-tier alert system for a contagious disease.
While some citizens welcomed the decision, some said the move was overdue and superficial.
"Many people have already been affected by the virus. I don't understand why the authorities did not raise the alert level earlier," Eunice Kim, a 34 year-old publicist in Seoul, said. The mother of a two-year-old called for systematic steps to publicize guidelines that people can readily follow to safeguard themselves and their families.
Hospitals generally agreed with the need to raise the flu alert. "The decision seems fit for the time being," a doctor at Seoul University Hospital said. Some schools rapped the government for having been indecisive about the temporary closure of all schools and asked for unified guidelines.
The raised flu alert demonstrates the gravity of the flu scare and the authorities' concern with assuaging public fear regarding the highly contagious disease that has claimed 42 lives since mid-August.
The government had formerly been hesitant about upgrading the alert level to its highest. However, its rapid spread, particularly with the recent cold spell, has overturned the authorities' initial position. Around 8,800 Koreans were confirmed to have caught the flu on a daily basis last week.
"We were concerned that a raised flu level may cause excessive public fear. But the gravity of the situation requires reinforced countermeasures," an official with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. However, the closure of schools and businesses, which had been under consideration, will not take place. Authorities expected that the spread of the virus would subside in December.
In line with the upgrade, the government plans to urge people to refrain from traveling or doing outdoor activities and to increase the supply of equipment necessary for conducting tests on patients.
Korea recently launched its first round of vaccinations under a plan to inoculate 35 percent of the country's 49 million people. The first batch of vaccinations is only for medical staff who are far more likely to be exposed to the virus on a daily basis and could transmit it to patients.
Students will not have access to the vaccination for weeks despite a relatively high risk of exposure because they stay in confined spaces for long periods of time. Under the government's vaccination priority list, students will have to wait until mid-November to get a shot, with babies and young children to be vaccinated in December.
In an Oct. 28 statement, the Korean Medical Association claimed there is a pressing need to shut down schools from November at the latest. "Such measures are needed due to the rapid spread of the disease particularly among youngsters, and because of the time it will take to complete the ongoing vaccination process," the association said.
Since the first local outbreak in May, the new flu has forced the temporary closure of local schools, and delayed or cancelled student and public gatherings.