'45,000 Domestic COVID-19 Tests, World's Highest...Foreign Media "Significant Capability"'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] "Although South Korea appears to have many confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), this is due to its high diagnostic capacity, freedom of the press, and a democratic and trustworthy system."

Andrey Avrahamian, a visiting researcher at George Mason University in South Korea, recently assessed in an interview with the U.S. current affairs weekly Time that "very few countries possess all three of these elements." This analysis suggests that the rapid increase in confirmed cases domestically is because the quarantine system is operating with strong intensity.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters on the 26th, as of 9 a.m. that day, the number of COVID-19 patients in South Korea increased by 169 from 4 p.m. the previous day to 1,146. Along with this, the number of people tested excluding confirmed patients reached 44,981. Among them, 28,247 tested negative, and the remaining 16,734 are still undergoing testing. Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb praised this, saying it "shows considerable diagnostic capacity of the Korean health authorities."

In contrast, only 426 people have been tested in the United States. This number excludes about 380 people who were aboard the Japanese cruise ship 'Diamond Princess' and returned to the U.S. on a government-chartered flight, representing about 1% of South Korea's testing volume. In South Korea, diagnostic tests are available at about 500 screening clinics and public health centers, but in the U.S., testing is only available in 12 of the 51 states and some regional laboratories. David Lim, a health reporter for the U.S. political media outlet Politico, pointed out on Twitter, "It seems the U.S. does not yet have the amazing capacity of (Korean) testing laboratories."

Japan has also only tested about 1,700 people. There are 100 companies in Japan capable of virus testing, each able to conduct about 900 tests per day. In other words, 90,000 tests per day are possible, but the maximum number of tests announced by the Japanese government on the 1st was only 3,830, about half of South Korea's 7,500 tests. Korean health authorities plan to expand testing capacity to 10,000 people by the end of this month. Former FDA Commissioner Gottlieb pointed out, "Japan is not testing as much as South Korea," and "Japan has a high proportion of cases without links relative to the total number of confirmed cases." He warned, "Japan could be a huge COVID-19 'hotspot'."