South Korea has been paid much attention from foreign media since the surge of the number of cases of COVID-19. While, in the past, Korea was considered as the epicenter of the virus, however, now they are praised for succeeding in controlling COVID-19. Indeed, according to the government’s announcement on May 1, South Korea recorded zero case in the country for the first time in 72 days, with the number of daily cases remaining around 10 for more than two weeks.

Likewise South Korea, foreign media recently focuses on another country that contains the spread of the virus. It is Vietnam, where has recorded 271 cases in total so far with no death. Moreover, there have had no cases for nearly three weeks in Vietnam.

Then, what is the keys how two countries have succeed in controlling COVID-19?

First of all, it is believed that an massive diagnostic test has played a key role. As reported by many foreign media, South Korean has aggressively traced the contacts of confirmed cases of the virus and tested all of them who would be possibly infected since the beginning of COVID-19. Vietnam has also actively dealt with the outbreak of the virus and conducted massive tests. On May 2, the Yonhap News Agency from South Korea reported that the number of “COVID-19 tests per confirmed case” stood at 966.7 cases in Vietnam, overwhelming compared to other countries, including 147.6 for Taiwan, 123.9 for New Zealand and 57.8 for South Korea.

Massive diagnostic tests can detect infected people in the early stages, reducing the possibility of its transmission. Especially, it can stop its spread through the early detection of the infected, even if they do not or have mild symptoms, and furthermore, they can be easily cured due to the early treatment. On March 17, the Times in the U.S. reported that diagnostic tests can determine where the infected person got the virus, letting the authorities know where to focus to cut the transmission cycle. In addition, they mentioned that the outbreak of the virus can be prevented by finding the infected people who have mild symptoms and isolating them immediately.

Another factor of its success is that both countries have takes active and appropriate measures to handle COVID-19 from its early stage. Firstly, South Korea have successfully contained the spread of virus through a series of aggressive and proper measures, such as tracking all contacts, conducting massive tests, identifying the movement of the confirmed patients and share the information with the public in real time.

Secondly, Vietnam has also continuously implemented active measures for tackling COVID-19. The Guardians from the UK reported that while other countries are struggling to cope with the current outbreak of the virus with intensive measures like lockdown, Vietnam is focusing on prevention of its outbreak in the country in advance. In the article, it is also said that Vietnam has succeeded in containing its spread with the combination of forced measures, such as mandatory wearing of masks, banning large gatherings like religious activities and festivals, and creative campaigns such as publishing handwashing songs.

As such, it seems that South Korea and Vietnam have commonly overcome its crisis caused by COVID-19. Korean government has recently announced that they ease their social distance policy and encourage people to keep distance in daily life, and also will open the schools from next week in sequence based on the grades. Moreover, Vietnam also announced that they have clearly beaten COVID-19 after more than two weeks with zero confirmed case.

On May 1, the United Nations (UN) reported how South Korea has succeeded in controlling COVID-19. In the article, the Director of UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Global Policy Centre in Seoul said its success is due to the citizen’s personal efforts and proper government’s action. Moreover, it reported that real-time information disclosure to the public, using regular government briefings, text notifications and apps, has played a key role in its success.

Stephan Klingebiel is Director of UNDP’s Global Policy Centre in Seoul, which fosters partnerships between the Republic of Korea and the developing world. He puts the country’s success down to self-discipline, effective measures and testing.

“Just a few weeks ago, family members and friends in Germany were afraid of my duty station. In the second half of February and early March, when the number of new confirmed Covid-19 cases peaked, South Korea seemed to be a real global hot spot. This impression has changed fundamentally: now, rather than being seen as an epicentre, South Korea seems to be an outstanding example of how to manage the crisis!”

Hye-Jin Park is a Communications & Partnership Specialist at the Centre. She says that, despite the good news concerning COVID-19, the Korean population remains vigilant.

“Thursday was the first time in 72 days that the number of local COVID-19 infections in Korea reached zero: even taking into account the “imported” cases, the number of confirmed patients has remained steady at around ten per day for the past two weeks.

However, it’s rare to see people without masks on, and the elderly, as well as families with young kids like myself, are staying at home as much as possible. Schools are closed, so my son opens his computer each morning to attend his online classes.

We all knew very clearly, thanks to the daily government news briefings, emergency alerts, web and mobile-based apps, and GPS trackers, what symptoms to be wary of, what to do and where to go for testing, which neighbourhood pharmacy carried masks that day, and which “infection locations” to avoid visiting.

This inundation of real-time public information is what has really helped South Korea throughout this crisis.

On April 8, CNN, the U.S. news media, described how Korea has succeeded in curbing the spread of COVID-19, unlike the U.S. and Britain, and reported that South Korea actively accepted experts’ opinions to cope with COVID-19, and eventually put the virus under control.

South Korea, the US and the UK all reported their first Covid-19 cases around the same time: on January 20, January 21, and January 31, respectively. How things unfolded from there, unfortunately for the US and UK, has been strikingly different.

Today, South Korea is reporting less than 100 new cases a day, the UK is reporting around 4,000 new cases a day, and the US is reporting around 30,000. But while numbers in South Korea have fallen, in the US and UK they have been rising exponentially.

The great success story is South Korea, and we know how they did it: they tested.

By February 4, Kogene Biotech of Seoul had not only developed one but had also had it approved by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). And by February 10, was reporting its findings on the first 2,776 people to have been tested.

At that point, there were only 27 confirmed cases in South Korea, so — in another impressive demonstration of speed — the South Korean authorities tested each of them and, more importantly, isolated those who tested positive and monitored their contacts.

Initially, the authorities were swamped by the numbers of people who needed testing, but South Korean officials have tested contacts of those who have been infected. The authorities have made tests freely available and set up drive-in stations, modeled on McDonald’s and Starbucks for anyone to use. Those who tested positive were then isolated, with the result that the epidemic was swiftly controlled without the country as a whole needing to be shut down.

On January 30, President Moon was saying that preventative “measures should be strong enough to the point of being considered excessive.” South Korea was sensitive to the dangers of the virus because of the country’s experience with SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, which spread in 2002 and 2003) and MERS (the Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus of the 2015 South Korean outbreak).

On April 13, the Brookings Institute in the United States said that South Korea had implemented several measures to respond to COVID-19, and as a result it succeeded in suppressing the spread of the virus. Moreover, other countries around the world could adopt the measures conducted by South Korea to flatten the curve of COVID-19.

Initially, South Korea struggled to respond promptly to contain COVID-19, which led to a spike in the number of infections in the country. In late February, South Korea soon became the country with the second-highest COVID-19 infections after China. Korea has since implemented several measures to effectively “flatten the curve” and provide timely medical care to the infected.

Providing protective equipment to medical staff is the first step in the fight against the virus. South Korean hospitals are properly equipped to prevent infection among physicians and medical staff at hospitals so that they can safely test and treat patients with COVID-19.

Once the highly contagious nature of COVID-19 became known, South Korea reorganized their medical system to minimize people-to-people infections at hospitals. The lessons learned from 2015 MERS outbreak facilitated the development of rapid responses such as drive-through testing sites that help reduce testing time and protect medical staff.The medical care is focused on treating those with severe symptoms, which lowered the mortality rate of COVID-19 in Korea.

The South Korean government announced it will cover all medical costs associated with dealing with COVID-19 for its citizens and foreigners living in the country. People infected with COVID-19 were given paid leave and the unemployed received basic living expenses.

South Korea was effective in tracing people who may have come into contact with those who tested positive for COVID-19. The government can trace the potentially infected population, using CCTV footage to identify potential contacts when needed. Those in close contact with the infected are asked to get tested, while indirect contacts are ordered to self-quarantine for fourteen days. This has an effect of breaking the chain of potential infections from the people who came in contact with the infected population.

Governments should make a campaign strongly recommending its citizens to wear masks at all times outside their home. One should recognize that a mask is a powerful protection against the spread of COVID-19, and this practice will reduce the rapid spread at the individual level.

Governments should exercise as much transparency in information relating to COVID-19 as possible. South Korea is now publishing the movement information of citizens who tested positive, with local governments are publishing the number of new infections, the exact locations they visited, when they visited, using what mode of transportation, and whether they were wearing masks at the time.

A gesture of leadership would improve the morale of frontline medical workers and citizens. For example, when there was a severe and large outbreak of COVID-19 in Dae-gu area, the South Korean prime minister positioned himself in Dae-gu and directed the response to the outbreak there.

South Korea’s experience highlights the importance of cutting the chain of infection in the country by supplying the hospitals and medical personnel with proper equipment and gear, testing and isolating infected citizens from the general population, and encouraging the practice of wearing masks and proper social distancing. In addition, the government has made a conscious effort to create a sense of trust by being transparent and bearing the financial burdens associated with treatment. South Korea has been successful in controling the spread of the virus thus far and their efforts could suggest possible guidelines elsewhere in the world.

On April 13, The Times reported about South Korea, which is holding a general election amid the spread of COVID-19. It introduced various precaution measures for the virus implemented during the elections and stressed that these measures could present a roadmap for elections in the United States or other countries.

South Korea heads to the polls on Wednesday to vote in parliamentary elections, making it the first country with a major coronavirus outbreak to hold nationwide elections since the pandemic began.

Officials have flattened the curve of the virus through aggressive contact tracing, prolific testing and travel restrictions. New infections have also slowed to a few dozen a day. Now almost 44 million eligible voters are heading to the polls—with strict new procedures enacted to protect them on election day.

Polling stations across the country will be disinfected regularly while voting is open. Officials will be checking temperatures, and anyone with a fever will be directed to a special voting booth. Voters will be provided with hand sanitizer and plastic gloves before entering the polling station, and wearing a mask will be mandatory.

More than 14,000 polling stations have been set up for voters, and the election commission is asking people who have to wait in line to stand one meter, or a little over three feet, apart.

Special accommodations have already been made for those who have COVID-19; they could either mail in their vote, if they registered between Mar. 24 and 28, or were allowed to vote early on Apr. 10 and 11, at one of eight polling stations that the election commission set up for coronavirus patients and healthcare workers in hard-hit areas.

Individuals in self-isolation after recent travel or possible coronavirus exposure are able to vote at a designated time to prevent them from mingling with people who aren’t infected. However, they are banned from taking public transport to reach polling places, according to local media.

Some of South Korea’s precautions could be applied in the U.S., experts say. Timothy S. Rich, who studies elections in East Asia at Western Kentucky University, says that many of the measures put in place could be adopted at polling sites across the U.S.—including allowing early voting, extending absentee voting, mandating the use of hand sanitizer and ensuring polling places are disinfected and that voters stand at least three feet apart in lines.

The Guardian from the United Kingdom cited South Korea’s efficient system and its citizens’ role in the process in which the system is created as a factor in South Korea’s successful response to the coronavirus in its article on April 11.

South Korea is one of the few countries that has succeeded in flattening the coronavirus curve. Its policy of testing, tracing and treating without lockdowns has been widely lauded. Some factors are considered as keys of being successful to deal with it – one is their experience of having dealt with previous epidemics such as Sars and Mers, other is the country’s effective leadership and another is the cultural factors.

What is often overlooked, though, is that at the roots of South Korea’s success against Covid-19 are a well-funded and efficient system of delivering public services. Without this baseline infrastructure, the policy of test, trace and treat could not have been sustained or expanded to the degree that it has. Likewise, effective leadership cannot achieve much if it lacks a well-oiled public service system that can deliver.

Korean politics since the 1990s can thus be characterised as a period during which citizens became increasingly emboldened in their relationship with the state, forcing governments to take their wellbeing seriously. One area that this has been the most conspicuous is in public transportation, energy and healthcare. For the average person, these are everyday services that all citizens have the right to enjoy, and which are paid for by taxpayers’ money. To put it in more utilitarian terms, they are the most tangible barometers with which to judge the government’s commitment to its citizens. Failure to improve their qualities and manage them properly almost always leads to a loss of votes for the ruling party in upcoming elections.

This sensitivity to public services and responsiveness to hold government accountable has been the spur behind the improvement of South Korea’s public services for the past 20 years. It also makes privatisation difficult to accept. Not only does it go against the ingrained sense of communal entitlement but also, seeing that services have improved under government, many question the logic of selling them to private companies.