Korea's response to COVID-19 hailed by international experts

A quarantine official takes the temperature of a driver and collects a sputum sample to screen for the new coronavirus, Thursday, at a drive-thru testing facility at Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu, set up as a preventive measure against COVID-19. Such facilities have been expanded across the nation as the test is faster than a typical checkup at a hospital or public health center. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

The government's response to the outbreak of COVID-19 has been praised by a number of international health experts who expressed high regard for the country's significant test and diagnostic capability along with its real-time, transparent information system.

Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), shared data on virus patients, released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), via Twitter, Feb. 22, calling it “very detailed COVID-19 reporting from South Korean health officials.”

“They have tested, or are awaiting results on almost 20,000 individuals, demonstrating a significant diagnostic capability,” he wrote. “They appear to have a current testing capacity of more than 3,000 cases a day.”

Marion Koopmans, a global MERS expert based in Rotterdam, retweeted a tweet, Feb. 24, from Infectious Diseases (@InfectiousDz) that said, “Korea now has just over 600 COVID-19 cases after running over 25,000 total labs. That's a hard working collective micro lab crew Korea lab capacity.”

Andray Abrahmian, a visiting scholar at George Mason University Korea, was quoted by TIME magazine as saying, “The number of cases in South Korea seems high at least in part because the country has high diagnostic capability, a free press and a democratically accountable system.”

The new coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has been spreading fast in Korea since the nation reported the first infection, Jan. 20.

As of Friday, the total number of infections here has exceeded 2,000, with more than half coming from the Daegu branch of a minor Christian sect known as the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

In its fight against the fast spread of the contagious disease, the government raised the country's alert level for the virus to its highest, Feb. 23, setting up a central disaster and safety countermeasures headquarters under the prime minister, and ordering schools across the country ― from kindergartens to high schools ― to postpone opening their spring semesters.

While hailing Korea's tactics on tracking patients, international experts have also warned against unknown cases in Japan, saying the neighboring country is not sufficiently testing for potential patients.

Japan has reported about 900 cases of the new coronavirus with about 700 coming from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Former U.S. FDA commissioner Gottlieb said, “Japan is not testing as much and has a high percent of unlinked cases relative to its total. Japan may be a big hot spot.”