시사&소설

 Jeju was hit by new cases of coronavirus positive on Wedensday the 25th.

 Jeju Special Self-governing Provincial Office announced yesterday 2 cases were verified after another 2 on Tuesday.

 One case is from Seoul. The subject is a 19-year-old girl who came back to Korea on March 15th from the US where she was studying. She visited Jeju on March 20th with mom and 2 more people. Her itinerary is like the above.

 The problem is that she ignored the advice from the authority to stay home for at least 14 days, and she already had minor symptoms like sore muscles and throat on the 1st day. But, she kept her schedule to drive around half the island. People got furious about the fact, and began a campaing with a slogan 'Jeju is not a haven from coronavirus!'

 Governor Won Hee-ryong himself on Thursday put an emphasis on this and made a strong point that anyone will be serioulsy put upon consequences if they lie about travel history to foreign countries and self-quarantine.

 The other case is from Jeju. The confirmed is a female student(26) who studied in the Europe. She came back to Jeju on March 23rd via Dubai to Incheon. She took the Asiana OZ8997 at 8:50 pm at Gimpo on the same day. She took a taxi from Jeju International Airport.

 She had no fever while entering to Jeju. However, she stayed at home as she was informed to be on active watch lists. Then, she went to Jeju Healthcare Center on Wednesday morning, had test, and confirmed positive that night.

 Even with the result, she still shows no symptom at all to this moment.

 So, currently, Jeju has 3 patients being treated. The other 2 are couples who came back from Spain on March 18h and to Jeju on March 19th, and got confirmed on 24th.

 As Korea has now more cases from people who visited foreign countries, Jeju seems to go through the same experience.

The last novel coronavirus patient in Jeju is discharged from hosptal in Monday afternoon, the 23rd.

 According to Jeu Special Self-Governing Province, the patient, or No. 1 case confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus last month, was declared free from symptoms after two tests ended in negative. The medical team in charge of him concluded, therefore, he can leave the bed.

 But, he will be on further watch as he showed changing results between postive and negative before. Dr. Song Byunghul, director of Jeju National University Hospital, said "We will have him visit hospital every 2 or 3 weeks for testing whether he has a symptom or not."

 He added that people should keep the protective procedures as Jeju became the only place with no more confirmed cases today.

 All international flights at Jeju international airport stop flying as of March 19th, Jeju MBC reported on March 19th.

 According to it, Spring Airlines of China announced that it has run a special line between Jeju and Shanghai for the convenience of illegal Chinese people who wanted to leave Jeju, but has no more plan.

 The regular international airlines has been shut down since the coronavirus outbreak. And commercial airline companies are known to keep business that way even after summer schedules begin on March 29th, it added.

 The 1st patient who was confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus is almost ready to leave hospital very soon, Dr. Bae Jong-myon, Director of the Jeju Center for Infection Diseases and Prevention(JeCI), disclosed on Thursady.

 He told reporters that the patient, who is a soldier, has shown improvement and he will be discharged sooner or later. But, the 4th has to wait till next week to make a final decision.

 The soldier was tested positive on February 20th after visiting Daegu, the epicenter of the mass infection in Korea. The 4th one was diagnosed of contamination on March 4th with the same reason.

 As of the midnight March 18th, Jeju has run 35 cases. 59 people have done self-isolation.

 Two cases of confirmed cononavirus patients may be a clue to evolving of the virus, an expert suggested.

 Dr. Bae Jong-myon, director of the Jeju Center for Infection Diseases and Prevention(JeCI), told reporters a hypothesis at the joint press conference of Jeju Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters held at the Jeju Special Self-governing Provincial Office on March 12th, according to Jeju Economy.

 This was given to a question that the 2 workers at the Guro Call Center were confrimed positive to tests but, still, showed no symptoms. Even the family of the 2nd woker's got tested negative.

 Dr. Bae explains "It seems that mutated viruses are spreading among people, that don't infect others but, instead, develop no symptoms.". He added "The viral detection with no symptoms may suggest that coronavirus is evolving to adapt to human body."

◆ The Coronavirus Seems Adapting to Human While Mutating

 This means that the 2 patients may have no infection on Jeju Island, according to him. "We need more tests to prove it, but family members who are in close contacts with the 2nd infected worker were tested negative, and she got positive on March 10th after having negative on March 9th. This may lead to a conclusion that it is highly improbable that she spreaded the virus while in Jeju." the director added. It is because she was possibly negative to the virus while she was traveling in Jeju, considering she got tested postive only after the 10th.

 He gave the cause of the result to the viral mutation. He said, "We are having more contamination with little visual symptoms. And, Wuhan(the epicenter in China) had many cases with the severe fever and coughing in the beginning, but very fewer cases with coughing now.". From this, he concluded "The (corona) virus came to Korea via lots of people, thus, it adaps to men. Like this, it has changed to see its genetic mutation."

 However, no symptom doesn't necessarily assure that you can be healed from the disease, he pointed out. Plus, it takes at least 2 days to have symptoms after the incubation period. So, there can be many interpretations about the possibility of infection.

 The director put an emphasis, as well, that it is time to change the quarantine strategies as 'no symptom' or 'little symptom' isn't a proof of the end of the coronavirus. It rather means that it is highly possible to get more contagious because it is hardly seen. He opined here "We should test every one from a city with mass infection, e.g. Daegu, within 14 days even when there is no symptom."

 This means that "We must ditch 'Get test when you have symptoms.', and introduce 'Go to a triage room if you are coming from a mass-infected city.'"

 As of March 11th, Jeju has 4 confirmed coronavirus patients. One of them was released from the hospital on March 7th. 73 are being tested, while 31 self-quarantined.

 The problem now is that a woman in her 40s, who was confirmed positive in Seoul, is known to have visited Jeju on March 7th, last Saturday. Dongjak-gu Community Health Center informed Jeju of her infection and the itinerary, which is as below. Further investigation is going on.

 It seems important to find out if

1. She has any connection with the cult

2. Why she visited Jeju when she had symptoms

3. She had no companion

●Wed, 4th

- Had coughing and sore throat

- Had lunch in Noryangjin1-dong(삼삼돈까스)

- 1:40pm went to have a job interview in Yeongdeungpo-gu

- Went to her work place(call-center), Daiso Noryangjin by the bus, visited her brother, and came back home

●Thu. 5th

- 9:00am went to work

- 6:00pm left the work

●Fri. 6th

- Spent the last day at work

●Sat. 7th

- 8:45am left for Jeju on OZ8915 (2 cabin crew + 23 passengers)

- 10:13am ~ 10:24am went to Jeju Bus Terminal by the bus(No. 466)

- 10:25am ~ 11:00am had luch at a buffet restaurant(제주기사정식뷔페식당) (1 worker + 2 guests)

- 11:00am ~ 11:24am waited for bus at the terminal

- 11:24am ~ 1:03pm took a bus(No. 201) to Gwangchigi beach

- 1:03pm ~ 1:32pm stayed at the beach

- 1:32pm ~ 2:11pm took a bus(No. 201) to Dongsung-dong

- 2:11pm ~ 2:25pm looked around a canola field

- 2:25pm ~ 2:39pm took a bus(No. 201) to Hamdeok (1 driver)

- 2:39pm ~ 2:50pm looked around Hamdeok beach

- 2:50pm ~ 3:00pm visited U-dream Mart Hamdeok

- 3:00pm ~ 6:30pm went to the cafe at Poemhouse Pension (1 worker)

- 6:33pm ~ 6:45pm had ramen at GS25 Hamdeok Golden Tulip (1 worker + 1 customer)

- 7:07pm ~ 7:26pm took a bus(No. 311) to Hwabuk Nammun

- 7:33pm ~ 8:04pm took a bus(No. 331) to Jeju Int'l Airport (1 driver)

- 9:10pm took OZ8996 to Seoul

●Sun. 8th

- Stayed home all day

●Mon. 9th

- Went to the Health Center to get a test

 Jeju has found 4 people confirmed positive for COVID-19 test as of March 6th. All were found to have been infected from visiting Daegu.

 The last 4th male case has caused some news as his itinerary changed significantly. The second announcement of it had more possiblities of close contacts, especially with his crew. Local newspapers' reports raise suspicions over this matter because Jeju government is very reluctant to revealing the itinerary of the 'acquaintance' of the No. 4. Its gender has never officialy been exposed, yet. But, rumors say it is a female, who was informed of his result and tested positive in Daegu.

 To day, he has been investigated to have seen 74 people in a close range in 8 different places.

 JEJU STATUS

 Confirmed Patients

A 48-year-old woman from Daegu was yesterday confirmed positive for COVID-19, Jeju announced.
According to Jeju, she came to Jeju on February 23rd. She has stayed at her friend's house in Hamdeok. Her route was investigated as following;

Feb. 23
Arrived in Jeju to friend's house in Hamdeok.

( Further investigation in process)

Feb. 26th
1100 am. The friend's house.
1200 pm ~ 530 pm. Fishing at the wharf of Dongbok port.
540 pm ~ 625 pm. Dinner at 'Jeju Gdde Gjib Hamdeok Branch' w 3 people.
625 pm ~ 630 pm. Moved to 'Hamdeok Ogoon Musictown' noraebang by the restaurant's car
630 pm ~ 900 pm. Sang at the karaoke room.
900 pm. Took a taxi at near Hamdeok Police Box to home.

Feb. 27th
100 pm ~ . Driving on the coastal road in the friend's car.
456 pm. Went to GS25 convenience store at Coop City hotel.
500 pm. Back to the friend's house and dinner.

Feb. 28th
Stayed home all day.
957 pm. Chicken delivered.

Feb. 29th
200 pm ~ 249 pm. Lunch at Daesung Agujjim.
320 pm. Had coffee in paper cup at 'People cafe' in Sinchon, and took a walk toward Sinchon port for 20ish minutes.
500 pm. Back home.

Mar. 1st
247 pm. Heard her mom tested positive.
400 pm. Moved to Hanmaeum hospital in the friend's car.
500 pm. Arrived at the hospital.
700 pm. Back home and began self-quarantine.
1200 am. Transported to Jeju Nat'l Uni. hospital.

stay sharp, and be healthy!

동네에 있는 어느 치킨집에 붙인 중국인 손님 입장금지 안내문.
배달 전문업소인 것 같은데, 굳이 이런 걸 써붙여야 했을까?
A local fried chicken shop posts this sign of 'No Chinese Tourist'.
It seems to do mostly delivery service. And does it have to do so?