[Q&A] Health Authorities Emphasize "Thorough Daily Quarantine for Normal Life"... April Early School Reopening Favored

COVID-19 Central Disease Control Headquarters Regular Briefing
"Comprehensive Assessment of Domestic and International School Reopening Cases and the Effectiveness of Social Distancing Over Two Weeks"

On the afternoon of the 26th, a teacher is conducting a rehearsal for an online class at Seoul Girls' High School in Mapo-gu, Seoul, which has been designated as a remote education pilot school.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] Amid discussions of additional school reopening delays or online classes due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), health authorities stated, "Our future vision is to enable people to maintain their daily lives through thorough everyday quarantine measures."

At a briefing on the 26th, Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters for COVID-19, responded to a question about the health authorities' stance on the originally scheduled school reopening on April 6. Deputy Head Kwon said, "It is necessary to carefully observe cases like Singapore, which recently reopened schools, and universities have started their semesters and are conducting classes," adding, "We can consider overseas cases, as well as the forms of classes, occurrence situations, and response methods domestically."

Regarding the government's initial plan for kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools to reopen on the 6th of next month, expert opinions are somewhat divided. Professor Oh Myung-don of the Central Clinical Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases emphasized at a recent meeting that "existing suppression policies have fundamental limitations," highlighting the need for the majority of society to prepare in advance for future infectious disease outbreaks. On the other hand, Professor Choi Eun-hwa of the Department of Pediatrics at Seoul National University College of Medicine recently published in an academic journal that the effect of social distancing may decrease after school reopening, increasing the likelihood of the epidemic spreading, thus favoring an extension of school closures.

Deputy Head Kwon stated, "In China, when a strong lockdown policy was implemented for one week, new COVID-19 cases decreased by about two-thirds, and after two weeks, the reduction reached approximately 88%," adding, "If we also strongly implement social distancing for two weeks, it is true that we can suppress community transmission." However, he added, "We will confirm how many infection cases with unknown transmission links are occurring in the community to make a more definite judgment before the April 6 school reopening."

Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Director of the Central Disease Control Headquarters (Director of the National Institute of Health)

The following is a Q&A with Deputy Head Kwon at the briefing.

- There have been cases where confirmed patients tested negative and were released from quarantine but later tested positive again. What is your view on this?

▲ About three such cases have been identified in Seoul alone. It needs to be carefully examined whether these were originally confirmed patients who transitioned to negative and then back to positive, or if the initial positive test occurred much later than the usual 14-day incubation period. Currently, diagnostic testing methods can yield positive results through amplification even if only viral fragments remain in the body, so small amounts of virus can cause positive results. Also, even if immunity waned and the patient transitioned to negative, if sufficient antibody defense was not formed, virus quantities that had decreased could reappear as positive when immunity is lowered. We do not consider this a very unusual or highly impactful situation.

- Hubei Province in China imposed entry bans even when patient numbers were lower than now. Is there any basis for strengthening quarantine measures for arrivals from the US or Europe beyond current levels?

▲ Currently, among 10,000 arrivals to Korea, 56.4 cases are confirmed from Europe and 8.1 from the Americas. However, the Americas have a large total number of arrivals and a rapidly increasing trend. We will decide whether to implement entry management at the level of Europe based on future developments and trends.

- Asymptomatic arrivals from Europe undergo diagnostic testing within three days, but considering symptoms may develop later, some suggest testing should be done at the end of self-quarantine rather than within three days. What is your opinion?

▲ The incubation period for COVID-19 is up to 14 days, but symptoms most commonly appear within 5 to 7 days. Considering the initial asymptomatic period or the period just before symptom onset, as well as various circumstances at departure, we believe there is a reason to conduct testing within three days of arrival during self-quarantine. Experts also suggest that viral shedding is high early on. Taking all this into account, asymptomatic arrivals are currently required to undergo diagnostic testing at screening clinics or public health centers within three days.

- There are safety concerns regarding the walking-through diagnostic testing at Incheon Airport. What is your response?

▲ Since this is a newly introduced method, we discussed improvements with experts. We determined it is better to conduct testing in places with airflow rather than enclosed indoor spaces. The principle is to conduct testing in areas without infection risk. According to overseas literature, even indoors, if air is exchanged about five times, the viral load decreases to less than 1%. Outdoors, the risk is significantly lower, so we have prepared and are conducting testing in a walk-through screening format.