시사&소설

Jeju has the 88th and 89th COVID19 cases now.
Both has been in quarantine since November 24 when they were told of contacting the 69th patient.

A woman in Seoul, who tested positive for COVID19, is revealed that she visited Jeju for a few days just before her trip.
She got the result today at 8 am. Jeju local government was informed of her itineraries as below from July 9 till July 14. She stayed mostly in Hallim where her family lives. Jeju proceeded quarantine process. It is performing further investigation.

◆ Itineraries

■ July 9
△ 14:40~15:30 Gimpo → Jeju(7C121)
△ Visited Sarangbang Teahouse(Hallim)

■ July 10 ~ 12
△ 07:00~09:00 Haebin Sauna(Hallim)
△ Visited Sarangbang Teahouse(Hallim)

■ July 13
△ 07:00~09:00 Haebin Sauna
△ Visited Sarangbang Teahouse(Hallim)
△ 18:30~20:00 Heukdon(Black Pork) Bon.ga(Hallim)

■ July 14
△ 06:30~08:30 Haebin Sauna
△ Visited Sarangbang Teahouse(Hallim)
△ 11:40 Jeju → Gimpo(7C112)

Jeju on Tuesday announced that it confirmed 16th case of coronavirus infection.
The patient is a male in his 20s, who returned from North America on June 11th via Incheon International Airport.
He had no symptoms on arrival. And he had a test at the walk-thru clinic at Jeju airport.
He has been self-quarantined at parents' alone since, and had more tests on June 12th. The results were 'not decided'. So, he had more the next day, and got postive result at around 3pm.

Jeju is getting close to coronavirus-free again since the 1st case on February 21st.

Jeju Special Self-governing Province on Tuesday announced that four COVID-19 patients(1st, 6th, 11th, and 12th) were discharged from hospital. These include

- 1st(M, 20s)

tested positive as the first case in Jeju on February 21st

returned to his base on March 23rd

transferred again to hospital on March 30th

- 6th(M, 30s)

confirmed on March 24th

released on April 17th

resulted positive again April 23rd

- 11th(M, 30s)

taken to hospital on April 3rd

discharged on April 21st

got positive result on April 27th

- 12th(F, 20s)

notified to be infected by Walk-thru clinic test on April 3rd

This makes the 5th patient(F, 20s), who was tested positive on March 24th after returning from Spain, the longest(45 days in treatment) case without a break. (cf. the 1st case)

Jeju is still on high alert for coronavirus quarantine and advises peopl to practice strong social-distancing after it had nearly 200,000 tourists during the golden week holiday. This sounds quite reasonable as a new case was identified which is possble super spreader.

Jeju had visitors as many as 196,138 during the golden week from April 29th till May 5th this year, Jeju Economy reported on Wednesday.
This is a reboost considering the decreasing numbers in the previous 3 months. But it is very sharp fall as much as 37.8% from the same month last year when had 315,186 visitors, it pointed out.
This is because of the coronavirus pandemic, it analyzed, as January saw 10.5% increase from January 2019, just before the outbreak.
As positive points like no new cases over 3 weeks and the first patient, who has been treated in hospital lomgest, was dischared, and negative i.e. the big wave of tourists may result in the second wave and schools reopen coexist, the coming 2 weeks or a month will be quite critical for the covid19 quarantine in Jeju.
Jeju officially announced that it will keep intensive 'social distancing' rule longer till May 18th to prevent community infection from happening, two days ago.

As holiday seekers are rushing to Jeju, people on the island and health authorities are on edge for the fear of the coronavirus spread.

Governor Won Hee-ryong on Thursday pleaded to people not to make a trip to Jeju if possible.

This is because it is expected that about 180,000 tourists will visit during the golden week starting from Buddha's Birthday on April 30, Labor day on May 1st, and all the way through Children's Day on May 5th.

In his announcement, Gov. Won worried loosened social distancing may cause the second explosion of COVID-19. He said "We cannot let our guard down until a vaccine is coming onto the market. (…) Jeju will keep border-level strong quarantine system without a break."

He added that, for the visitors even after his appealing, they should be prepared to "actively protect Jeju Island" while here. He said that all of them should wear face masks at times and if they begin to have any symptom, to seek out medical advice immediately.

He along with Jeju officials will be on special alert for the period, he added.

 As of April 12th, Jeju has held a good control on COVID-19, novel coronavirus considering it has no new confirmed case since April 3rd(cf. the table below). And all the cases are related with outsiders rather than Jeju residents. This is unique as no community infection has occured. Is the clean environment of Jeju the main reason of it?

 Anway, the whole country has shown a great improvement of containing the crisis, people are beginning to go back to the normal life, if not the fullest, which can lead to a slow recovery of the economic activities. The Gov. Won Hee-ryong told reporters on Friday that Jeju will prepare to welcome domestic travellers expecting them to visit Jeju when they can not go aborad after the coronavirus is over. It seems that some already started to make reservations for rent-a-cars, hotels, etc. Plus, President Moon also said on his social media Friday that we can expect to get out of 'social distancing' into 'normal life + quarantine' if we spend safe Easter and election.

 Won said "It is highly possible that Jeju can be in a new danger unless we set the stronger quarantine system than at Incheon airport. … There, we will get details of border-level of disinfection procedures and higher steps ready."

Details of Confirmed Cases

 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.'"