SEOUL, South Korea – For most of the year, South Korea has kept its corona virus count very low, much to the envy of the world. Now, just as other countries are preparing to produce vaccines, the country is plagued with unseen epidemics. The number of new cases in South Korea daily was less than two a day. That number rose to 682 on Thursday, which health officials warned could reach record levels in the coming days. As of Wednesday, February 29, 686 new cases had been reported. “We must do everything we can to address this as our last hurdle in addressing our efforts to control the corona virus before vaccines and treatments come online,” President Moon Jae-in said this week. He instructed his government to mobilize troops, police officers and civil servants to assist in the contact-finding efforts of epidemiologists. The country’s struggle to control the recent uprising is a race against time. This week, Mr. Moon’s government announced that it had received enough corona virus vaccines from companies such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer to vaccinate about 86 percent of the population, but the first batch would not arrive until March. South Korea has suffered four waves of infection since its first case was reported in January. But health officials said the latest was too difficult to control. The first mass explosion occurred at a church in the southern city of Daegu in February, until it was brought under control through an aggressive trial and isolation campaign. The virus spread again in May when it erupted from a popular nightclub district in Seoul. In August another wave struck, forming a church and an anti-government rally in Seoul. These previous waves had mass clusters that health officials were able to target and locate. The current wave has spread through numerous small clusters that have erupted in nursing homes, hospitals, sanas, bars, restaurants, concerts and factories, most of which are located in the Seoul metropolitan area, but also in distant cities. This has made it harder to control the disease to catch the spread of the virus, said Na Seong-woong, deputy commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Organization. Daily cases of violating social distance guidance and other measures continue to increase. Mr. Na warned that next week the daily cascade might cross 900. “The current wave is not temporary or regional, but we are facing our biggest corona virus crisis as it is stable and nationwide,” he said. “We don’t have a central cluster that can be closed with a focused test and isolation campaign, but it pops up in everyday life, here and there.” There is also the matter of infectious fatigue. The wave is triggered by younger asymptomatic patients and others who are tired of longevity of social distance. Health officials said the groups were more likely to dine and dine outside in small indoor gatherings without masks. As the winter began, South Koreans may have reduced their defenses, and many returned to airtight indoor areas, where the virus “created news about the completion of vaccines and expectations for their high efficacy rates, creating the illusion that the epidemic would soon be over,” Dr. Jung Jae-Han said. Professor of Preventive Medicine at Kachon University near Seoul. Moon’s government is determined to fight the virus while keeping the economy afloat. Its two-pronged strategy worked. South Korea has so far done so without closing its borders or locking up cities, except for the widespread explosions seen so far in other countries. That strategy includes tightening social distance rules when the virus escalates and easing them when case numbers fall back down. But in an effort to limit the impact of epidemics on the economy, Mr. Moon’s government has been accused of easing restrictions too soon and delaying them too much. The government is now competing to identify and isolate young or middle-aged patients who have no symptoms. The test centers operate at night and on weekends, and open mobile checkpoints near train stations and college campuses. Officials said they would be useful in places where people urgently need to be checked, such as prisons or nursing homes. “We will allow anyone to test for the virus anonymously. Fear of stigma, ”said Jung Yoon-kyong, the country’s top disease control executive. “All we ask is their mobile phone number and they don’t need to tell us about other patients’ symptoms or epidemiological connections.” Whether South Korea can mitigate the current tide will affect its vaccination program. The country plans to stockpile vaccines, but delays in delivering them until other countries are hit by more severe outbreaks. This wait-and-see approach is a luxury that South Korea can afford with its luxurious number of cases. It may change if the current wave exceeds the vortex control. “Our strategy is to be quick to get vaccinated, but very careful in delivering them,” said Health Minister Park Nung-hoo. “But if the situation changes and many people ask for it, we can start vaccinating soon.”
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