Stumbling in the dark
For months now the news cycle has been a grim reminder that our best hopes and technological advances cannot keep us safe from COVID-19. The virus has ravaged nations, both rich and poor and generally made society aware as to just how unprepared the modern world was for events of such characteristics and scale. But amidst all this doom and gloom, there was hope based on a few good examples. There were nations that had recovered from a rocky start to controlling the contagion and gone on to become pioneers of a kind in this protracted conflict against strange, as yet mysterious foes. South Korea was a particularly prominent example in this group, being one of the countries that was greatly affected early on, briefly becoming the country with the most number of infections with the exception of China.
The nation managed to stabilise the situation with rapidly scaled up testing measures and contact tracing that was taken to an efficient if also intrusive extreme to limit the spread. As a result, the number of infections declined. South Korea was one of the few nations where strict lockdowns were considered but never carried out. South Korea's model became a global talking point with many countries seeking to emulate the efficient approach that is based on transparency and public cooperation. While there were some apprehensions, the South Korean model was appreciated as being a more realistic way of balancing economic activity with safety as compared to other models. And yet, such good things, unfortunately, do not usually last.
As of now, South Korea is in the middle of a resurgence in caseload with triple-digit daily increases not seen since the initial surge. Not only has this upsurge caused a real panic regarding a severe 'second wave' but it has also cast considerable doubt on the nation's COVID success story which the Government had packaged as the "K Quarantine" method. The erratic and spread out nature of the new outbreaks has been a further cause for concern, making many second guess the Government's relaxed lockdown measures. Over the last few weeks, the Government has rolled back on many of these casual freedoms, with nightclubs and karaoke rooms being shut down. Entertainment venues and gyms may soon follow. If the conditions continue, a total lockdown (in some form or fashion) may also be brought to bear. This will have an impact that is likely to go beyond purely financial concerns. In a nation obsessed with competitive schooling and elite degrees, a shutdown sends a hard to swallow message of the scale of the crisis. As the South Korean PM recently noted, South Korea did not shut down its schools even in the disruptive times of the Korean War.
The situation in South Korea is an unusual one. It has been reported that many of the new infections came from foreign sources and a majority of these infections are related to the Sarang Jeil Church. The organisation is the second religious group in South Korea to become the centre of a COVID outbreak. Much like the first time, this particular organisation has also been accused of obstructing the Government by not providing complete lists of its members and spreading false rumours which have impeded the campaign to contain the new outbreak. The organisation in question maintains that the virus is being used as part of a politically motivated witch hunt to target the group. It must be noted that tensions between the group and the South Korean Government are not new. Indeed, most evangelical groups in South Korea do not approve of government actions, a sentiment often related to the perceived 'soft-treatment' of North Korea by the political leaders. As a result, many of the organisations have an inbuilt distrust of the Government which translates to church members viewing official authority as secondary to instructions by religious leaders. Predictably, this became a problem when the Government banned large religious gatherings and groups like the Sarang Jeil Church reportedly carried on. The leader of the organisation, before being hospitalised for COVID-19 had accused the Government of using them as a scapegoat to draw attention away from South Korea's well publicised housing crisis. The Church has also decided to sue the Seoul Metropolitan Government for forcibly carrying out contact tracing on the group.
South Korea's resurgence is now no longer simply a case of whether the Government relaxed control measures too early, it is also now part of a more tangled mess where officials try to debate if indeed 'Church is essential' enough to merit exemption from Government orders aimed at preventing outbreaks. Of course, this is not an issue that is specific to South Korea. It must also be noted that health officials have not been so uniform in blaming the Church for the outbreak with many noting that large gatherings at plays, concerts, etc would likely have their own part to play as well in this new outbreak.
What is worrying is the new resurgence in countries that had previously contained the virus like South Korea and New Zealand.
