Epidemic disrupts people's daily routines

By Kim Rahn

People are staying away from stores and public gatherings for fear of contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

Police have even stopped administering sobriety tests to suspect drivers.

Preschoolers and students at more than 900 kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools, and universities, are staying at home as their institutions are closed as a preventive measure against the deadly virus.

Most of the schools are located in Gyeonggi Province, where the largest number of confirmed cases has been reported, but dozens of others in nearby provinces and even in Seoul shut down as rumors spread that the regions also had MERS patients.

Many universities cancelled their scheduled sessions to introduce their 2016 admission plans to students and parents this month.

“Hagwon” or private tutoring academies in the affected regions in Gyeonggi also closed.

As citizens refrain from going to public places where people congregate, discount stores have seen decreases in sales, especially those in the affected regions.

The sales between June 1 to 3 at E-mart’s outlets in Dongtan and Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, where the first patient and first death were reported, dropped 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively, from the same period a year ago.

Lotte Mart also said that the average sales at its four outlets in Suwon and one in Pyeongtaek slid 19.3 percent during those three days.

Instead, people are using online shopping malls.

Lotte Super said its online sales on June 1 and 2 increased 29.5 percent from two weeks ago. Frozen foods were the most sought items, followed by gargling products, rice and hand sanitizers.

Home plus’s online mall also had a 22 percent increase in sales during the same period. “The hike was especially for sanitation products such as hand sanitizers and masks, baby products and canned products,” a Home plus official said.

The disease has also interfered with law enforcement.

Police suspended sobriety tests in regions where MERS patients were confirmed, following fears that the test, in which drivers exhale, could spread the virus.

“Officers disinfect the breathalyzer every time they use it, but people showed anxiety,” an official at the National Police Agency said.

In western Gyeonggi Province, police and the prosecution cancelled a request for arrest warrant for a theft suspect after the man was found to have been in contact with a MERS patient.

According to police, the man stayed at his mother-in-law’s house a day before being caught, and she was later confirmed to be infected with the disease. The man, who had been taken into custody at a police station, was sent to a public health center instead of jail.

The military also decided to delay reserve forces training for those who recently returned from the Middle East or visited hospitals treating confirmed patients.