The big lesson from South Korea's coronavirus response

Testing and tracing were the key to slowing the spread of coronavirus.

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In South Korea, citizens have flattened the curve of the novel coronavirus -- and it's because of lessons they learned from fighting the MERS outbreak in 2015. Through a combination of aggressive and widespread testing measures, along with a system know as “contact tracing,” they’ve been better positioned to spot the path of the virus and curb its spread. While they are still vigilant for a second wave of Covid-19 cases, people in South Korea are slowly returning to public life. Watch the video above to find out how their testing and contact tracing measures work, and how it can be a lesson for countries still in lockdown.

You can learn more about the 205 MERS outbreak in South Korea and the lessons learned from it here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/...
https://www.who.int/emergencies/mers-...

If you are interested in the first reported cases in Wuhan, China you can check out their public announcement here:
http://wjw.wuhan.gov.cn/front/web/sho...

This Reuters Graphics piece has a great timeline and visualization of the coronavirus clusters in South Korea:
https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HE...

You can read South Korea’s Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act to learn more about the tools the government has at its disposal to request location information during outbreaks here:
http://www.law.go.kr/LSW/lsInfoP.do?l...

To learn more about Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong’s handling of the coronavirus check out this TIME article:
https://time.com/5802293/coronavirus-...

You can check out all of our coronavirus videos via this playlist:
   • Coronavirus – Vox  

And finally, for all things coronavirus, head over to our Coronavirus, Explained hub where we have all of our extensive coronavirus coverage:
https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19

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