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[경향신문]
On June 28, the day the accumulated number of COVID-19 cases worldwide exceeded 10 million, a closure order is posted at Wangsung Church in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, after cases of the novel coronavirus were confirmed here. Lee Joon-heon

A second outbreak of the novel coronavirus is no longer a distant fear. On June 28, the number of COVID-19 cases confirmed worldwide exceeded 10 million. The number of deaths due to the virus also reached 500,000. The world achieved these records in just six months after the first case of the new coronavirus was confirmed in Wuhan, China at the end of last year. In the United States, the number of cases confirmed in a day surpassed 40,000 for the first time. In Europe and India, 20,000 cases are confirmed each day. Expectations that the spread of the virus would slow down in the summer heat were fruitless. The transmission of COVID-19 has accelerated and the virus is now spreading across the entire planet.

The situation concerning the new coronavirus is deteriorating in South Korea as well. As of midnight June 28, the number of new cases confirmed on the previous day increased to more than sixty in just eight days. Authorities failed to trace the route of infection for 10% of the cases. The virus is spreading simultaneously through local transmission and influx from overseas. Local transmission of the virus has spread beyond the Seoul metropolitan area to Chungcheong and Honam regions and is spreading throughout the nation. In Seoul, the number of confirmed cases per day remained around twenty this month, pushing the accumulated number of patients over 1,300. It’s only a matter of time before Seoul surpasses Gyeongbuk’s record of 1,387 cases. Nearly thirty cases were confirmed at Wangsung Church in Gwangak-gu, Seoul, which has nearly 1,700 followers. This isn’t the first nor the second time a cluster of transmissions has occurred in a church in the Seoul metropolitan area. On June 28, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun urged religious facilities “to consider non face-to-face events first,” but the government should not end here. They need to provide stronger quarantine measures, such as designating churches as high-risk facilities.

Experts say that the situation in South Korea is not yet at a stage that can be referred to as a second outbreak. According to the “standards for the levels of social distancing” released by the government on June 28, the current situation is level 1 (distancing in everyday life), the lowest of the three levels. But as long as small cluster transmissions and influx from overseas continues, the possibility of another massive outbreak remains high. If the nation faces an outbreak of influenza in the fall, it will be tougher to fight COVID-19. So the government needs to provide specific and thorough measures against COVID-19 ahead of such an event. The government needs to increase and secure health and medical resources, such as medical staff and epidemiological investigators, and work to adequately assign medical facilities, such as hospitals specializing in infectious diseases and living treatment centers, throughout the nation to prepare for a second outbreak.

As the COVID-19 outbreak continues into the long-term, quarantine instructions, such as physical distancing, masks, and washing hands has become a part of everyday life. Citizens should now go beyond everyday preventive measures and begin establishing a “new normal” in their lives. Kim Jong-chul, the publisher of Green Review who died last week, argued that the stampede of capitalism, excessive industrial development and consumerism triggered the current COVID-19 outbreak and presented preventing the destruction of the eco-system and a simple and modest life as an alternative. We cannot live just waiting for the development of a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19, since no one knows when they will be developed. We need to seek and practice skills in life to coexist with nature and improve human immunity.


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