By Morgan Matzen
Mar. 15 ― A South Dakota woman who is on a visa to teach English in a private elementary school in Busan, South Korea, is unable to work because her school is closed over concerns with the coronavirus.
Tatum Dean, who is from Mitchell, S.D. and graduated from the University of South Dakota in December 2018, moved to Busan in June last year. Her E-2 visa lasts as long as she has a job at her school Chungdahm, but she's on a one-year contract to teach.
South Korea is the site of the second-largest coronavirus outbreak. The CDC has advised a Level 3 warning level for South Korea since February 24 for people to avoid any nonessential travel to and from the country.
The worst impact is in Daegu ― about an hour-long bus ride from Busan ― where the virus spread rapidly throughout the city after a 61-year-old woman exhibiting symptoms of the virus went to her Sunday church service at the Shincheonji Church of Jesus building in mid-February.
After that service, health officials diagnosed the anonymous woman as South Korea's 31st coronavirus patient, and declared her Patient Zero for all Shincheonji-linked cases. As of March 1, health officials in the country trace three-fifths of the country's then-3,736 cases to the woman.
Dean said many South Koreans consider the church to be a cult, and there were many memes circulating about the woman who is considered a "super-spreader" of the virus.
"Daegu is a bit more shut down than we are currently," Dean said. "A week or so after that is when it hit Busan. Cases were right in my area, right around my work. Right around my house was one of the bigger areas to be infected, also because of a church."
Dean said many teachers in South Korea are unable to work right now. Because she works at a private school, though, she still receives 70 percent of her paycheck every week to pay rent and other bills.
"Some teachers are in the predicament of possibly just going home (to the U.S.) because they're not sure how long they're going to not be paid," Dean said, noting that schools that make their own decision to close still have to pay their teachers, whereas if the government tells a school to close, they don't have to pay their teachers at all.
Dean was able to record videos of the lessons she needs to teach and disperse them to students online. She's not sure when they'll go back to school, but knows her students will be caught up on the class because they have an online system. Other schools aren't as lucky, as the government has shut down public schools until March 23.
"For kids in smaller academies that don't have those online systems, they're going to be playing catch-up," she said. "People are saying that there might not be a summer vacation this year. In public schools, they might have to work through the summer vacation."
Dean said she wouldn't be surprised if her school didn't open for a few more weeks.
"If for some reason they opened and a kid got infected, that looks really bad for the company for not listening to the government," she said.
The South Korean government has issued citizens to stay in as much as possible, and that the best option is for employees to work at home, if possible.
Schools are mostly closed; flights don't enter or exit the country; airlines have shut down; churches and other religious centers avoid hosting services; restaurants are closed.
Dean said she and her roommate, a woman from North Carolina in a similar situation to her, got groceries on Monday last week and stayed in for most of the week. By the weekend, they couldn't handle the cabin fever.
"We were like, 'we can't be inside anymore,'" she said. "I went to my Korean class, and we went to a cafe and walked around. I think people are still getting outside to do things; it's definitely a lot less."
Dean said she and her friends and roommates have gotten a little stir crazy staying home all day for the last few weeks, but they know it's their best bet to avoid bigger areas like movie theaters, bowling alleys and other recreational activities.
Hand sanitizing stations can be found at most any building one enters, even on buses and in subway stations, Dean said. Wearing masks outside the home is common courtesy at this point, Dean said, regardless of if someone is infected. Masks only prevent spread of the infection, not whether someone will catch it.
"You will definitely get a dirty look if you are not wearing them out in public," Dean said of surgical masks in South Korea. But the shortage of masks is wreaking havoc, as wait lines of more than an hour are piling up in pharmacies and convenience stores to purchase more masks.
Hospitals take every patient's temperature. Dean said when she goes into work each day, they take her temperature when she arrives, and before she leaves for the day. The cutoff is 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (37.5 degrees Celsius); anything more than that is a red flag to health officials.
Dean noticed that on some buses, she will usually be the only passenger as more and more people stay home.
"On the weekend, it's like a ghost town (when I go) walking around," she said. "No one is really out. You still see cars, but no one is out walking around."
Some locations have a much higher risk of infection, such as public transportation, PC cafes (coffee shops with computers patrons can access for free), airports and train stations. Dean said people will spray buses down with cleaning chemicals in HAZMAT suits every night, for example, if they know the bus is potentially infected with the virus.
Dean said many small businesses are closing, or at risk of closing. Banks in Korea allow some businesses to pay half their rent so they don't go under, she said.
"No one wants to go into a restaurant. Delivery services are very busy," she said. "Grocery stores aren't depleted of anything other than cleaning products."
Dean said she relies on an online food delivery service called 'Coupang,' which is similar to Amazon, to bring food to her door each morning when she can't go to the grocery store.
"There are times when you go on there and everything is sold out, or they're not selling anything because they have to restock," she said, noting that people have to make payments online instead of using cash, which could further spread the virus.
"Some things are really affected, and other things are life as normal," she said. (Rapid City Journal, S.D./Tribune News)