2020, the year COVID-19 changed our lives

By Jun Ji-hye

It has been about 11 months since COVID-19, which originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, broke out in Korea. Since the confirmation of the first virus case here in late January, the total caseload here has now passed 40,000 as of last week and continues to grow.

People's daily lives began to change dramatically when the nation experienced the first wave of infections centered on the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a minor religious sect, in February and March.

Wearing face masks and increased frequency of hand washing have since become part of people's daily routine.

For its part, the government first imposed social distancing rules March 22, asking churches and other facilities with a high risk of infection to suspend operations, while advising citizens to refrain from going outside and gathering in large groups.

The nation's elementary, middle and high schools that usually start the new school year in early March remained closed for about two months. Schools resumed classes online in phases, and they reopened gradually starting May 13.

An increasing number of public and private companies expanded work-at-home measures as part of efforts to prevent the coronavirus spreading at offices.

“In March and April, my two elementary school daughters had online classes while I worked from home. It was the first time that we spent that much time together daily, literally 24/7,” a worker at a web service company in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, said. “The girls got so bored as they couldn't go to school, meet friends or go outside to play. They even spent nearly two weeks in pajamas. I was also exhausted from taking care of them all day long while working from home at the same time.”

Following the government's social distancing drive, the nation's COVID-19 infection rate appeared to be plateauing in April, and the government pushed ahead with the April 15 general election, which became the world's first nationwide election held during the pandemic.

The new daily cases dropped to single digits in early May, and facilities were allowed to reopen in phases, and meetings and events were also allowed as long as participants abided by some basic quarantine guidelines.

But the pleasure of returning to normal life did not last for long after mass infections linked to nightclubs in Seoul's Itaewon area occurred at the start of the same month. More infections soon followed linked to a large-scale anti-government protest staged by conservative civic groups in central Seoul, Aug. 15, which resulted in a yet another wave of infections that continued into September.

The government had to enhance its social distancing rules again, and life became tougher for virus-hit industries such as airlines, travel agencies and restaurants as well as small business owners, while the public's mental fatigue worsened.

“I was asked to take unpaid leave due to financial difficulties at my company,” an official from a Seoul-based travel agency said on condition of anonymity. “It feels like I have lost balance in my life. What has made me even more stressed is that nobody knows when this crisis will come to an end.”

Now the nation is facing the third wave of the pandemic, with the fourth-highest level in the five-tier distancing scheme placed on Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan area that have recorded the highest number of daily new cases that has topped 1,000.

Inevitably, COVID-19 has become the most frequent topic among Korean Twitter users this year.

“COVID-19 has been mentioned about 7 million times in tweets among domestic users,” a Twitter Korea official said, noting that COVID-19-related issues ― “self-isolation” and “social distancing” ― were ranked third and fourth in the list of top keywords, respectively.

The results of the analysis were in line with global trends as #COVID-19 and #stayhome were ranked first and third in Twitter's list of top keywords around the world.

The public health crisis has also changed people's perceptions about factors of anxiety, as novel diseases were cited as the most serious factor in a survey conducted by Statistics Korea.

In the survey released Nov. 18, 32.8 percent of respondents chose new diseases when asked about what made them feel anxious. Two years ago, only 2.9 percent answered so, Statistics Korea said, noting that crime was ranked first at the time with 20.6 percent of respondents choosing it.

This year, however, crime slipped to third place with 13.9 percent, while financial difficulties, which may have been associated with the COVID-19 crisis, were ranked second with 14.9 percent.

“COVID-19 has changed many aspects of life, and this has exerted a great influence on the results of our social survey for 2020,” said Kang Yoo-kyung in charge of the survey at Statistics Korea.

Experts said people would continue to have to live with COVID-19, resorting to face masks and hand sanitizer, until vaccines are commercialized.

However, Ki Mo-ran, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Center, called for a cautious approach toward vaccination, saying the safety of vaccines has yet to be guaranteed.

“There is nobody in the world who knows for sure about the safety of the vaccines, which have only been developed recently,” Ki said. “Things will be clarified after the analysis of more test results and materials.”