"K-Quarantine Issues Stem from Lack of Understanding of Field and Pandemic"

National Medical Center 'Why Reform of Infectious Disease Response System is Necessary After COVID-19' Forum
Im Seung-gwan, Director of Anseong Hospital, "Early Strategies Used Too Long Due to Lack of Understanding of Pandemic"

On the 2nd, at the forum titled 'Why is Reform of the Infectious Disease Response System Necessary After COVID-19' hosted by the National Medical Center, Seung-kwan Lim, director of Anseong Hospital of Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center, is presenting.
Photo by Youngwon Kim

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] South Korea's COVID-19 quarantine measures were initially successful but gradually lost effectiveness due to a lack of understanding of the field, according to an evaluation.

On the 2nd, Lim Seung-kwan, director of Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Anseong Hospital, said at the forum "Why is reform of the infectious disease response system necessary after COVID-19," hosted by the National Medical Center, "There are both successful and unsuccessful aspects of K-quarantine," adding, "In the early stages, COVID-19 measures were very successful, but in the later stages, they were not so much."

Director Lim emphasized that problems in the later stages of quarantine arose from a lack of understanding of the pandemic and the field. He explained, "There was an understanding that the pandemic could be controlled and ended through effort, but at the same time, the situation with variant viruses kept changing," adding, "Policies needed to continuously adapt to these changes, but due to insufficient understanding of the pandemic, early strategies were used through the mid and late stages."

He also pointed out the lack of understanding of the field. Director Lim said, "Issues with nursing facilities and nursing homes have existed since the Cheongdo Daenam Hospital incident, but the failure to accurately analyze the reasons or make plans was because we were not grounded in the field."

A representative example presented was the "designated medical system." Director Lim said, "Even if the designated medical system was unavoidable in the early stages, operating a designated hospital system for over two years made it impossible to prepare for situations where daily cases rose to 600,000," adding, "The scale differs by about 100,000 times compared to MERS, which had 186 cumulative patients, yet we did not significantly deviate from that perspective."

He then argued, "We need to move toward guaranteeing medical accessibility for COVID-19 confirmed cases, suspected patients, and contacts within a universal medical system rather than a designated system," explaining, "While high-level infectious disease facilities are necessary, more attention should be paid to how safe the entire system is, including other general hospitals and nursing facilities, not just a few."

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