How can good planning and implementation save countries from lockdown and economic collapse in a Pandemic?
South Koreans, when it came to fighting the next big pandemic after SARS and MERS, they made sure they had adequate preparedness and proactive approach of tackling the Covid19 infection head-on. They also assured that it does not spread uncontrollably.
Step 1: Isolation and contact tracing
Whoever came from China or other infected region were asked to quarantine and were tested Covid19. Those who were asymptomatic and later developed symptoms were then contact traced along with their friends and contacts and isolated and were tested to find out if they had the infection spread.
This made sure that people were isolated as quickly as possible and quarantined to prevent further infection in the community.
Step 2: Testing, testing and more testing
Testing is the only proactive way of finding out who are the infected people who came in contact with the already tested positive patients. This gives them enough data to find out where the patients have been and whom they have been in touch with over their free movements.
When things started to look bigger than just contact tracing, South Koreans tried to drive through testing booths for people who could just drive in using their cars and get testing while on their journey. This meant that a lot of people were being tested daily and that helped the officials to figure out the actual infection in the country.
Step 3: Containment and no lockdown
How the infection is controlled and through contact tracing and isolating infected cases have brought down further infections in the society and the entire country. This further helped in not necessary to lock down the entire county of South Korea and therefore not making huge financial and business losses.
It puts immense pressure on the governments to take out contingency funds and provide the necessary stimulus to the business and people who lost their jobs and need a wage to continue the livelihood of their families.
👆How South Korea tackled Covid-19
Final learnings
So we learn how this pandemic was tackled by South Koreans successfully. It is not only an example that applies for disease prevention but also other aspects of life. Better planning not only saves a lot of money in the long term but also saves the workforce and economy from collapsing.
👆The big lesson learnt from South Korea’s Coronavirus response
What we also learn from Europeans and Americans is that if you take on something without proper preparations and planning, the chances are that you will have to change tactics on a war footing and change public communications on a weekly to bi-weekly basis and sometimes even days to make sure everyone understands the gravity of the situation.
And by the time you react, it is already too late to control it.
