Another Korean employee from Camp Walker in Daegu has tested positive for the coronavirus:
A South Korean woman who works for the U.S. military in Daegu tested positive for the new coronavirus, raising the military’s total to nine, the command said Tuesday, as the overall number of cases in South Korea showed signs of slowing.
U.S. Forces Korea said the woman, who worked at Camp Walker, has isolated herself at her off-base residence in the southeastern city, which is at the center of the outbreak that has led to more than 7,500 infections nationwide, with 54 deaths.
South Korean and U.S. military health professionals “are actively conducting contact tracing to determine whether anyone else may have been exposed,” USFK said in a press release, adding the military remains at a “high” risk level across the divided peninsula.
You can read more at the link, but now nine people related to USFK have tested positive for the coronavirus, but only one of them has been a USFK soldier.
Another person with links to USFK has tested positive for the coronavirus:
A South Korean construction worker at a U.S. military base in the coronavirus-hit city of Daegu has tested positive for COVID-19, U.S. Forces Korea said Monday, raising to eight the number of USFK-affiliated people who have been infected.
The employee, who was on contract with USFK at Camp Walker, “is currently in isolation at his off-base residence” as directed by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a press release.
U.S. military and South Korean health professionals are investigating the employee’s movements and contacts to determine whether anybody else may have been exposed to the virus, it said.
Even the coronavirus issue has lead to a tit-for-tat between Korea and Japan:
People await check-in for flights to Japan at Gimpo International Airport on Sunday, hours before Korea was set to suspend its visa-waiver program for Japanese citizens starting Monday. [YONHAP]
All Japanese citizens will need visas to enter Korea starting today, announced the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs Friday in response to Tokyo’s slapping of quarantines on visitors from Korea over fears of the new coronavirus.
Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young said in a press briefing Friday evening that all foreign travelers coming from Japan will also have to undergo special entry procedures.
Cho announced the reciprocal measures after Tokyo announced Thursday mandatory two-week quarantines for visitors from Korea and China at designated facilities starting today. Japan also said it will restrict flights from the two countries to Narita International Airport and Kansai International Airport. The measures are expected to last through this month.
Cho said the Korean government “once again expresses our deepest regret that Japan announced the measures unilaterally without prior consultation.”
This decision kind of seemed inevitable and it has now in fact happened:
The Army has halted moves to new assignments for troops stationed in South Korea through May in a bid to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, officials said Sunday.
The decision, which was announced a day after the Army unveiled the same measures for troops based in Italy, also affects travel for professional military education in the United States.
Both U.S. allies are in the midst of major outbreaks of the virus, with more than 7,300 confirmed cases in South Korea and nearly 6,000 in Italy.
The Army has ordered a stop for “all Army soldiers and family members moving to or from South Korea or soldiers scheduled to attend professional military education in the United States due to COVID-19 concerns,” U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement.
Some rare good news out of South Korea in regards to the coronavirus:
In this photo taken on March 8, 2020, Health and Welfare Minister Park Neunghoo delivers a briefing on the government’s responses and plans to contain the spreading coronavirus outbreak at a government complex building in Seoul.
The number of new coronavirus infections in South Korea continued to rise, with an additional 179 cases confirmed Sunday, bringing the total to 7,313.
The number of newly added confirmed cases is lower than 367 additional cases of COVID-19 released on Saturday, the slowest on-day gain since Feb. 26, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).
It marked the first time in 11 days the number of new infections fell to below 400, possibly offering signs of containment.
It appears the Chinese propaganda apparatus is now beginning their inevitable shift to blaming foreign countries for spreading the coronavirus within China:
In total there have been 13 confirmed cases of coronavirus being imported into mainland China (AFP Photo/NICOLAS ASFOURI)
China reported an increase Tuesday in cases of the new coronavirus coming from abroad, as the country where the disease first emerged now worries about importing infections.
In total there have been 13 confirmed cases of the virus being imported to the mainland — all in Chinese nationals returning from overseas.
More than 3,100 people have died and over 90,000 have been infected worldwide.
The vast majority of cases are in China, but South Korea, Italy and Iran have emerged as the countries with the most cases outside the epicentre.
Eight Chinese nationals who worked in the same restaurant in Italy’s northern Lombardy region have tested positive for the virus in eastern Zhejiang province, according to the local government.
You can read more at the link, but I have little faith in the numbers being reported out of China. It seems pretty coincidental that once the markets started tanking and companies began considering pulling out of China that suddenly news turned good that the Chinese were getting the coronavirus under control. Now as new cases pop up the Chinese propaganda apparatus can blame its spread on foreigners.
Kim Jong-un is playing good cop, bad cop with the South Korean government with his sister playing the role of bad cop now:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a personal letter to “comfort” South Koreans fighting the novel coronavirus epidemic just a day after his sister condemned Seoul as a “frightened dog barking”, the South’s presidential office said Thursday.
Pyongyang has imposed strict restrictions and closed its borders to try to prevent an outbreak and insists it has not had a single case of the novel coronavirus which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since spread around the world.
The South has reported the largest number of cases in the world outside China and its total passed 6,000 Thursday.
In his letter to President Moon Jae-in, Kim “conveyed his message of comfort to the South Korean people who are battling against the outbreak”, said Yoon Do-han, a senior official at the presidential Blue House.
Kim said he was “worried” about Moon’s own health, Yoon added, and “underlined his unwavering friendship and trust towards” Seoul.
Here is what one poll says about the Moon Jae-in administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak:
Centrist voters are dissatisfied with the Moon Jae-in administration’s response to the new coronavirus outbreak, a survey showed Wednesday, and their votes for the April general elections will be swayed by the current situation.
According to a poll commissioned by the JoongAng Ilbo and conducted by Hankook Research, 50.9 percent of the centrist voters said they think the government is doing poorly in the fight against the outbreak, while 44.6 percent said the government is doing well. The poll was conducted on Feb. 26 and 27 on 1,000 people across the nation, over the age of 18, and the JoongAng Ilbo released the outcome on Wednesday.
Of all respondents – liberals, conservatives and centrists – 50.7 percent said they are dissatisfied with the government’s countermeasures against the outbreak, while 47.1 percent said they are satisfied.
Volunteer service for virus patients Ahn Cheol-soo, chief of the People’s Party, enters the emergency management center of a hospital in the southeastern city of Daegu, the epicenter of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak, on March 2, 2020, after participating in volunteer service for infected people. (Yonhap)
Here is the latest on the coronavirus spread in South Korea:
Graduates from the Korea Armed Forces Nursing Academy receive education on the new coronavirus at the institution in the central city of Daejeon on March 2, 2020. Seventy-five new officers from the school are set to be sent to Daegu on March 3. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s new coronavirus caseload approached 5,200 on Tuesday, with an alarming cluster of infections continuing to swell in the southeastern city of Daegu. President Moon Jae-in declared a “war” on the fast-spreading virus.
The 374 new cases, which were identified over the past 16 hours on Tuesday, brought the nation’s total number of infections to 5,186, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
Tuesday’s additional cases followed 600 new cases on Monday and the nation’s sharpest daily spikes of 1,062 on Sunday and 813 on Saturday.
