COVID-19: 대한민국의 보건정책과 보건의료체계 관점에서 대응 경험

This report examines how the Republic of Korea as a society has been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Major factors that contributed to its success include 1) prompt testing for diagnosis, 2) timely tracing of potential contacts, and 3) proactive organization of triage system. Such measures are implemented at a number of different situations when other conditions and prerequisites were already established or under development. Actions taken by the central government that may have significantly helped mitigating the impact of Covid19 include: 1) Collaborative relationship with other international organizations and partners for sharing information bilaterally, which may have given more time to prepare for the virus crossing the border. 2) Transparency in delivering information. Timely release of the information on the newly confirmed cases and their possible contacts helped reducing anxiety among the public. 3) Experts and professionals assisted to fight against the misinformation spreading in the public. 4) The responding agency had flexibility in accepting new knowledge and applying it to the response activities. 5) Contact tracing combined with rapid diagnostic capability(drive in testing booth) were the key components which comes with sacrifice of contact tracers, hundreds of them. By identifying close contacts and confirming positive at the same time reduces the chances of infection spreading further. 6) Social distancing was practiced by the public both voluntarily and mandatorily. A whole of society response to this pandemic has been emphasized as a critical approach by a number of examples. Sustainable mitigation measures are needed to prepare for the 2nd wave of COVID-19. Hospital infection control is still a top priority : risk of group infection and affects the most vulnerable to this virus. Response workforce’s health and safety is utmost important; loss of workforce in healthcare setting will lead to withdraw of some of the progress made in the public health area.