Tag: coronavirus

Israel is taking some very stringent measures against Korean visitors to stop the spread of the coronavirus because of recent pilgrims from Korea that brought the virus to the country:

On Sunday, the Israeli government officially issued an entry ban on foreign citizens coming from Korea and Japan starting Monday. 

Israel has already banned visitors coming from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Thailand.

A plane from Korea that landed in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport Saturday evening, carrying some 200 non-Israelis, was refused entry and forced to return to Korea with nearly all its original passengers just two hours later.

Several media outlets in Korea, citing the Israeli Travel Ministry’s office in Seoul, reported Sunday that Israel would also confine all 1,600 or so Koreans currently on Israeli soil to their current lodgings for 14 days, the amount of time the virus is believed to incubate in a human body. 

Korea’s Foreign Ministry denied the allegation, saying it confirmed with the Israeli government that no such measure would be enforced. The ministry added that it lodged a complaint with the Israeli government about the latter’s refusal to admit the passengers of Saturday’s flight from Korea. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Via the Stars & Stripes comes word that a U.S. military dependent has contracted the coronavirus:

A U.S. military dependent who visited base facilities on a southeastern base tested positive for the new coronavirus in South Korea, officials said Monday, as they raised the risk level for the military community to high.

South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “informed us today a [U.S. Forces Korea] dependent in Daegu tested positive for COVID-19, making this the first time a USFK individual has tested positive,” a USFK statement said.

“USFK has raised the risk level to ‘high’ for USFK peninsula-wide as a prudent measure to protect the force,” it added.

No active-duty service members have tested positive for the coronavirus that has rapidly spread in the country over the past week, Camp Humphreys garrison commander Col. Michael Tremblay said separately at a town hall-style meeting Monday.

He said the woman who tested positive was a 61-year-old widowed dependent.

USFK said the woman had visited the post exchange on Feb. 12 and 15 at Camp Walker in the southeastern city of Daegu, which has been the epicenter of a recent outbreak.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting that the Korean government is delaying the school term across the country, but are still allowing in 70,000 Chinese college students:

South Korea said Sunday it will postpone the new school year, set to start next month, as part of efforts to tackle the new coronavirus after the number of patients spiked to more than 600.

“To prevent the spread of infection, and for the safety of students and school faculty, the education ministry will postpone the first day of the 2020 school year at kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools across the country by a week,” Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said in a government press briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The news is getting worse out of South Korea in regards to the spread of the coronavirus:

Four more fatalities from the new coronavirus were reported in Korea over the weekend, bringing the total death toll to six as infections skyrocketed to 602.

The Korean government elevated its official alert level for the coronavirus on Sunday to “red,” the highest in its four-tier system, in a meeting presided over by President Moon Jae-in and pledged to mobilize all resources to subdue the outbreak.

Infections remain heavily concentrated in a single city, Daegu, and the surrounding province of North Gyeongsang, with 495, or 82.2 percent of the total. Four of the six deaths are linked to Daenam Hospital in North Gyeongsang’s Cheongdo County, where nearly 110 other people including medical staff have contracted the disease.

A 40-year-old man in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, who died Friday posthumously tested positive for the coronavirus Saturday, officials from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.

A 57-year-old man who was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of Daenam Hospital before being recently transferred to Dongguk University Gyeongju Hospital in Gyeongju died Sunday morning. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

There has unfortunately been another coronavirus fatality in Korea:

South Korea reported the nation’s second death from the new coronavirus, with the number of confirmed cases surpassing 200, officials said Friday.

The woman in her 50s died at a hospital in the southeastern city of Busan after being transferred from a hospital in a nearby county, where the nation’s first COVID-19 fatality was reported the previous day. She was confirmed to be infected and moved to Busan earlier Friday.

Yonhap

Too make things even worse the virus is now spreading at epidemic levels in South Korea with over 200 people now infected.

It sounds like Daegu is beginning to turn into Wuhan:

 South Korea reported its first coronavirus-linked death Thursday, while Daegu urged residents to stay home as the southeastern city struggled to contain an outbreak of the pneumonia-like disease.

The Army garrison in Daegu also restricted access and announced that schools and non-essential business would be closed for a second day.

In an exception to policy, U.S. service members were authorized to wear face masks in uniform regardless of air quality conditions, according to the garrison’s Facebook page.

Fast-moving developments this week were a blow to South Korea’s hope that the crisis was easing.

Instead, health authorities reported dozens of new confirmed cases in recent days, pushing the total number of infections past 100.

U.S. Forces Korea said no personnel have been infected with COVID-19, which first appeared in December in Wuhan, China, and spread to nearly 30 countries. More than 2,000 people have died — most in mainland China.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, as well as this link back to the original USAG Daegu Facebook posting announcing the reduction of military operations in Daegu. All the best to everyone in Daegu.