Category: Korea-General Topics

It will be interesting to see what the results of this survey are, but expect that it will likely show the majority of the population in South Korea has been infected with COVID:

The results of an on-going large-scale COVID-19 antibody survey, the first of its kind since the outbreak of the pandemic, are expected in early September.

The antibody positivity rate survey, launched last Tuesday, will be conducted on some 10-thousand South Korean citizens over the age of five across 17 cities and provinces nationwide.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, along with the Korean Society of Epidemiology, are currently selecting a demographic group based on age, region and case prevalence that is representative of the nation.

Health authorities hope the survey results will become the stepping stone to a more accurate and scientific COVID-19 policy by finding the scale of “hidden infections” that were excluded from official statistics.

The survey aims to find viral antibodies that were developed through natural infections, not those acquired through vaccinations, which would yield an estimated scale of infections excluded from government statistics.

KBS World News

You can read more at the link.

The fact that the fatality rate is now equivalent to the common flu does not seem to register with the critics that want to bring back stringent COVID protocols to slow the spread of the virus. Considering the sinking approval ratings that the Yoon administration has now, bringing back stringent COVID protocols would sink the administration approval rating even more:

The government decided Wednesday to secure an additional 4,000 hospital beds, as well as increase the number of testing centers and the distribution of self-testing kits amid the resurgence of new COVID-19 infections caused by the fast-spreading BA.5 Omicron subvariant.

Some health experts, however, are urging the government to reintroduce social distancing measures at least to some extent before the infections spiral out of control. The country reported 76,402 new infections for Tuesday, including 429 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,937,971, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The number of critical cases stood at 96, with 12 new COVID-19-related fatalities.

The authorities predicted that the current wave will reach its peak between mid-August and the end of that month, during which the country may see up to 300,000 new infections per day.

Alarmed by the increasing number of infections, the Central Disease Control Headquarters announced Wednesday that it will set up 70 additional temporary testing centers ― 55 in the Seoul metropolitan area and 15 in other regions ― across the nation and expand the distribution of self-testing kits at convenience stores. It also obligated workers at nursing homes to take PCR tests on a weekly basis. 

“If you look at the measures announced by the government so far, you can see that there’s no strategy to reduce the current scale of the spread of the virus,” Eom Joong-sik, an infectious disease expert at Gachon University Gil Medical Center said during an interview with local radio CBS.

“Now that the authorities have decided not to use preemptive distancing measures as a response, the virus will simply spread around freely, considering the increase in the number of people moving around and of person-to-person contact, as well as the vaccination rate and the high transmissibility of the variants,” he warned.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is not a bad idea for the entrepreneurs that came up with the PC-tel concept, but I guess we will see if the Korean government decides to regulate them out of existence:

An increasing number of teenagers in Korea are heading to unstaffed motels at night to use the venues to play computer games, raising concerns about the facilities’ lack of monitoring against underage visitors.

The issue has stoked further a more deeply troubling side effect of the facilities that they are creating a space for teenagers to engage in the illegal consumption of alcohol, prostitution and sex crimes.

The lodges welcome visitors with kiosks at their fronts instead of concierge staff. The machines offer rooms to anyone who pays in advance, regardless of age. The facilities, because of the unmonitored check-in system and lax screening regarding customer age, are becoming more popular option for teenagers who are restricted from using PC rooms after 10 p.m. under the country’s Youth Protection Act. 

These so-called “PC-tels” ― a compound of PC and motel ― aren’t difficult to locate. One can easily find a list of PC-tels at popular online lodge searching brands using websites or smartphone apps like Good Choice or Yanolja. Users, once agreeing to provide their real-time location information through those search engines, can conveniently browse a list of lodges offering high-performing computers with pre-installed popular games ― like League of Legends or Battlegrounds ― in their vicinity.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see how many claims get submitted to this compensation center:

Korea opened a Covid-19 vaccine injury compensation center on Tuesday as access to fourth vaccine doses was widened amid a new wave of the virus.  
   
Previously, compensation for vaccine side effects was managed by the Covid-19 vaccination task force team under the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).    
   
The newly-created Compensation & Support Center for Covid-19 Vaccine Injury will take over, the KDCA announced Tuesday. It vowed to increase the number of personnel and build the center’s expertise. 

Apart from deciding compensation, the center will also provide counseling to patients with post-vaccine reactions.  
   
Health authorities also announced they will expand financial support for vaccination side effects that were difficult to prove were caused by the jabs.  
   
The KDCA said Tuesday that people with diseases that are suspected to be related to Covid vaccination — but haven’t been proved — can receive up to 50 million won ($38,150), up from the previous 30 million won.  
   
Compensation for post-vaccine deaths that couldn’t be proved was raised from 50 million won to 100 million won.  
   
In addition, the government will give 10 million won to survivors of people who died within 42 days of receiving a Covid vaccine even if the cause of death was not established by a post mortem examination. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Interesting posting over at ROK Drop favorite, Dr. B.R. Myers site about how many students who go into Korean Studies lose interest in it after a year or two:

Many a university here has learned this the hard way. I assume that a higher proportion of Westerners are willing to pay their own money to learn about China or Japan, because such a degree promises enhanced access to a much bigger economy, therefore better job prospects. I doubt if Hallyu fandom and demand for Korea-related courses are even a reliable indicator of an all-surpassing interest in this country. One can be crazy about BTS, and even crazier about Japanese anime.

The question is whether the measures Prof. King proposes will help incentivize young Westerners to pursue a Korean studies degree. Although not in a Korean studies department I have some relevant experience. About a third of my students are from foreign countries. Some stay in Korea for one semester, some for four years, and some settle down here, usually in an enclave of their countryfolk. Most seem to lose interest in studying the host language and culture within a year or two.

Funding is not a factor. Virtually all of my foreign students get at least half their tuition paid for; some are on full scholarships. They tend to become disaffected with the study of Korea because they become disaffected with Korea itself, and its perceived nationalism or xenophobia in particular. To give just one anecdote: recently some of my best foreign students, including one in an advanced stage of pregnancy, were asked to leave a coffee shop lest their alienness unsettle local patrons worried about COVID.

B.R. Myers

You can read more at the link.

It definitely appears the family from Gwangju killed themselves after their car was found submerged in the waters of Wando island:

Police investigating the mysterious deaths of a 10-year-old girl and her parents found last month in a car sunk in waters off the southwestern coast said Wednesday that sleeping pill ingredients have been found in their bodies.

The Gwangju Nambu Police Station said it was recently informed by the National Forensic Service of the detection of sleeping pill ingredients in the remains of Cho Yu-na, a Gwangju elementary school student, and her parents in their 30s.

Cho and her parents, who resided in the southwestern metropolitan city of Gwangju, were found dead on June 29 inside their family car pulled out of waters off Wando, a quiet island about 120 kilometers south of their home. The family went missing about a month earlier after last being seen alive on closed-circuit TV at a Wando guesthouse on May 30.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it seems very selfish to commit suicide with the 10-year old girl that had no say in this.

The BA.5 variant is surging in South Korea and many other parts of the world. South Korea is increasing quarantine measures based supposedly on science. We will see what that means soon, but at least the social distancing mandates are coming back yet. However, in the below article there is a great discussion about the lowering of the vaccine booster age to 50 because it essentially does nothing:

The government on Wednesday announced a set of quarantine measures in an effort to respond to the resurgence of infections driven by the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant of Omicron, which is soon expected to become the dominant strain here.

These were the first pandemic-related measures introduced by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which has vowed to carry out quarantine policies based on scientific data.

Medical experts, however, had doubts about whether the measures would be effective in curbing the new wave of infections, which may lead to as many as 200,000 daily cases by mid-September.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) decided to lower the age of eligibility for a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 50, from the current 60. People with underlying diseases aged 18 and over have also become eligible for the second booster.

The government did not reinstate social distancing measures such as limits on the operating hours of multiuse facilities or the number of people at private gatherings, which were lifted in April.

“Considering the high transmissibility of the BA.5 strain, from the point of view of returning to normalcy, as well as in terms of public acceptance, we believe that social distancing measures, if reintroduced, would have limited effects in curbing the spread of the virus,” said KDCA Commissioner Peck Kyeong-ran during a briefing. 

“But we may review partially bringing back the distancing measures if the fatality rate rises,” she added.

However, the newly-announced measures have raised eyebrows among some medical experts.

Chon Eun-mi, a respiratory disease specialist at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, viewed that lowering the age limit of the second booster was rather unnecessary.

“It is hard to understand why the government has expanded the fourth shot to people in their 50s when the fatality rate among that age group is near zero,” she said. 

According to the latest KDCA data, the figure stands at 0.04 percent, lower than that of the total population, which is 0.13 percent.

“Although vaccines have proven to be effective in preventing severe illnesses or deaths, they are not a panacea. During the BA.5 wave, anyone can get the virus, regardless of the person’s vaccination status,” she said, given that the BA.5 subvariant substantially evades antibodies created by the currently available vaccines or by infection.

Chon went on to say that, right now, the government should more actively use antiviral treatments to prevent vulnerable groups from falling into critical condition, rather than counting on the available vaccines to protect them.

“Instead of expanding the age eligibility for the fourth dose, the authorities should have introduced measures to increase the inoculation rate among the elderly aged over 60, who account for over 90 percent of critical cases and deaths,” said Kim Woo-joo, an infectious disease specialist at Korea University Guro Hospital.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It was this time last year when the Delta variant surge happened and now it appears the world is entering the BA.5 variant surge this summer:

South Korea’s new coronavirus cases surged to a two-month high of over 37,000 on Tuesday, driven by the spread of a highly contagious new omicron subvariant and deepening concerns over another virus wave.

The country added 37,360 new COVID-19 infections, including 260 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,561,861, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Tuesday’s figure is the highest since May 11, when the daily count came to 43,908 in the aftermath of the omicron wave. It also more than doubled from 19,371 cases logged a week earlier, as the country has seen an upturn in infections from end-June.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but like I have been saying for a long time the daily case rate should not be the number people focus on, it should be hospital rates. With all these tens of thousands of daily cases, according to the article only 74 people are hospitalized. Despite this fact I expect governments to consider returning to the usual protocols of enforced mask wear, social distancing, etc. Already on Okinawa the government there is leaning in that direction.

Good luck trying to get people to believe this, though the inflation crisis I think is starting to make realize that giving out free money maybe is not a good thing:

 President Yoon Suk-yeol sounded the alarm on the country’s fiscal health on Thursday, saying people should wake up from the “fantasy” that increasing government spending will automatically improve people’s livelihoods.

Yoon made the remark while presiding over a fiscal strategy meeting with members of the government and the private sector at Chungbuk National University in Cheongju, 112 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

“We must wake up from the fantasy of fiscal universalism,” Yoon said, describing it as the belief that if the government spends more of its budget, “automatically, the economy will grow and people’s livelihoods will improve.”

“In order to overcome the people’s livelihood issues and fiscal crisis that we face, the government has to be the first to tighten its belt,” he added.

The finance ministry unveiled plans to reduce the fiscal deficit to a size equivalent to less than 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), from the 5.1 percent estimate for this year, and to cut the debt-to-GDP ratio to around “the midpoint” of the 50 percent range by 2027 to help slow the pace of the national debt.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of South Korea’s growing space program:

Korea on Tuesday started transporting the country’s first lunar orbiter to the United States ahead of next month’s launch using a SpaceX rocket, officials said.

Korea plans to launch the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, also known as Danuri, aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 8:24 a.m. on Aug. 3 (Korean Time).

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Danuri was sent from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, to Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, in a specially designed container.

The orbiter will be flown to Orlando International Airport and arrive at the Floridian space center Thursday. It will later undergo maintenance, assembly and other pre-launch preparations for about a month before launch.

Danuri will begin circling around the moon in December and conduct a yearlong mission to observe it using an array of instruments, including cameras and magnetometers. It will also identify potential landing sites for future lunar missions.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.