The principle of distance during COVID-19 outbreak in Korea
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COMMENTARY
The principle of distance during COVID-19 outbreak in Korea Kyoo-Man Ha 1 Received: 9 July 2020 / Revised: 9 July 2020 / Accepted: 20 July 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The majority of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Korea have been related to mass infection. The nation must urgently promote the distance awareness approach during emergency response and discourage the distance unawareness approach. Other nations may also apply the principle of distance to their pandemic management. Keywords Coronavirus . Distance unawareness . Distance awareness . Mass infection . Public gatherings
Introduction The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as an epidemic respiratory disease is new to human society; hence, the international community does not yet know how to efficiently prevent or treat it. Instead, various nations have tried different approaches to COVID-19 based on the responses to previous respiratory diseases (Hjelmgaard 2020). Examples include precautions such as wearing face masks, washing hands with soap and running water, sneezing into one’s upper sleeve, restricting travel, closing restaurants/bars, maintaining distance among people, testing for coronavirus with testing kits, using ibuprofen, and so on. South Korea (hereinafter Korea) has been no exception to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. The risk of the pandemic has steadily acquired gravity in the current times, with the loss of human lives, economic damages, and psychological impacts being observed. A noticeable factor is that more than 80% of the confirmed cases have been related to mass infection, while less than 20% have been linked to individual infection (KCDC 2020). Mass infection refers to a situation where many pathogens enter human tissues or circulatory systems and thus result in breakouts among multitudes. Considering that the Korean environment has been ripe for mass infection, this issue should be solved on a war footing.
* Kyoo-Man Ha [email protected] 1
Department of Emergency Management, Inje University, 197 Inje-ro, Gimhae City, Gyeongnam 50834, South Korea
This paper aims to highlight the importance of maintaining a distance between people during the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea, with the ultimate goal of reducing mass infections. In doing so, the paper has analyzed the distance unawareness approach versus the distance awareness approach. Unawareness is not knowing the distance to be maintained between people (at least 6 ft or 2 m), whereas awareness refers to a perception of the aforementioned distance. These two approaches have been compared in terms of four major stakeholders: governments, religious groups, hospitals, and other community-based institutions. The primary argument is that Korea must ensure a transformation from the distance unawareness approach to the distance awareness approach.
Distance unawareness approach Governments have provided several guidelines to people on how to efficiently deal with COVID-19. Examples include wearing face masks, washing hands with soap and running water, us
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