The country recorded 64 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 8,961 with 111 deaths. But health officials warn against complacency, saying the country still faces a long war against the infection.

How different is South Korea’s approach?

Nearly 20,000 people are tested every day for coronavirus in South Korea, more people per capita than anywhere else in the world. The country has created a network of public and private laboratories and provides dozens of drive-through centres where people with symptoms can check their health status.

South Korea developed its approach after an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) in 2015, when 36 people died in the country, which had the second-largest number of Mers cases after Saudi Arabia. Laws on managing and publicly sharing information on patients with infectious diseases changed significantly after Mers and could be seen in action this year when the government used phone alerts to tell people if they were in the vicinity of a patient.

Why is South Korea fearing a new wave?

The country has seen two waves of infections, the first beginning on 20 January with the first confirmed case, and the second with mass infections among a religious group. Now there are fears that imported cases could fuel a third wave. The government plans to install around 20 phone booth-style test facilities inside Incheon Airport to speed up the process of testing all arrivals from Europe.

Analysis by Laura Bicker Seoul correspondent

South Korea is at a critical juncture. Yes the aggressive use of technology to trace the virus and the mass testing of all who’ve been in contact with the infection appears to be a strategy that has worked but the question doctors across the country are asking themselves is – what comes next?

The paradox of South Korea’s success is that having worked so hard to lower infection rates, their medics have to keep going. It’s a bit like climbing a steep mountain without knowing how high the peak will be or what obstacles may be in the way. The dire situation in Europe also has many here anxious that if they let up just a little, that too could be their fate.

The United States has a narrow window of opportunity to determine the fate of its coronavirus crisis. Will we end up looking like Italy or South Korea?

Italy’s health system has imploded under the strain of new cases and the shortage of ventilators means doctors must make agonizing decisions on who to save and who to let die. In contrast, South Korea acted swiftly and boldly to “flatten the curve”— the government did everything it could to slow the rate of increase and so reduce the burden of the illness on the country’s clinics and hospitals.

Why is it so critical for us to have a massive surge in testing? People who are sick need to get the right diagnosis and clinical care. People with mild symptoms who get tested can self-isolate and help stop the spread of the virus. If one person has the disease, we can then test those they have been in contact with (known as “contact tracing”). In other words, testing and contact tracing can help to break the chain of transmission. As Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director general, says: “Find, isolate, test and treat every case, and trace every contact.” And, crucially, testing helps us to know where the disease is, how it is evolving, and where to target our efforts to control it. It identifies the hot spots of infections.

Countries that have flattened the curve made testing widely and freely available, using innovative approaches like mass drive-thru test centers. South Korea has been conducting around 12,000-15,000 tests every day, and has the capacity to do 20,000 daily. While it is hard to get accurate estimates, the CDC reports that only around 25,000 tests have been conducted in total nationwide by CDC or public health labs in the U.S.—compare this with the roughly 250,000 tests that South Korea has done to date.

A critical tool for breaking this community transmission is “social distancing”—staying away from places where people congregate (movie theaters, bars, restaurants, shopping centers), avoiding mass gatherings (like religious services and concerts), and maintaining a distance of at least six feet from other people. Countries that flattened the curve have taken a variety of approaches to breaking community transmission, from school and office closures to suspending public transportation.

Our most precious resource right now is our health workers. To prevent the medical workers from becoming infected, sufficient protective equipment should be supplied to ensure their safety. Such infections put even more strain on the health system, and continue to fuel the cycle of transmission.

All in all, it’s too soon to throw in the towel and accept an Italian scenario. With five key measures—testing and contact tracing, communication and coordination, social distancing, protecting health workers, and health systems planning—we could still become South Korea.

Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr, the South Korean Foreign Minister, Kang Kyung-wha, says she thinks extensive testing has been the key to South Korea’s low coronovirus fatality rate, and that governments have the responsibility to “guard against panic”.

Andrew Marr
First, let’s turn to South Korea because they have seen a slowdown in the number of cases and may just be over the worst. How have they done it? I am joined live from Seoul by South Korea’s Foreign Minister, Kang Kyung-wha. Foreign Minister, thanks for joining us.

Foreign Minister Kang, Kyung-wha
Yes, thank you for having me, Mr. Marr.

​Andrew Marr
You have as a country adopted a particular strategy towards this. (Yes.) Just explain to us the basis of your strategy.

Foreign Minister Kang, Kyung-wha
Well, the basic principle is openness, transparency and fully keeping the public informed. And I think this is paying off. We have very good health care system to begin with. We have a system that is highly wired as you can imagine. And fully utilizing that, we have dealt with this outbreak from the very beginning with full transparency and that’s the way we’ve won the public trust and support for this. And as you say, we are seeing a stabilizing trend. For three days in a row, the number of newly confirmed positive cases is smaller than the number of those fully cured and released.

​Andrew Marr
You’ve also got the most extraordinary testing system. You are testing, I think, 20,000 people a day which is far more than any other country of your size. How have you managed to achieve this and why is testing central to what you are doing?

Foreign Minister Kang, Kyung-wha
Well first of all, testing is central because that leads to early detection, it minimizes further spread and it quickly treats those found with the virus. And I think that’s the key behind our very low fatality rate as well. I think our system quickly approved the testing system after the Chinese authorities released the genetic sequence of the virus in mid-January. Our health authorities quickly conferred with the research institutions here and then shared that result with the pharmaceutical companies who then produced the reagent and the equipment needed for the testing. And so, I think our testing is nearly a quarter of a million at this point. 268,000 as of today.

​Andrew Marr
That’s remarkable. The other thing that you do of course is that you monitor people afterwards. You are not going into the same kind of lockdown, social exclusion that a lot of European countries are. Instead you are monitoring people by phone app. Again, can you explain why you are doing that and not closing down large chunks of your country?

Foreign Minister Kang, Kyung-wha
Well, I think this is being faithful to the values of our very vibrant democracy which is open and the government fully in the service of the people, and I have to say our public is very demanding and expects the highest standards from government services. And I think this is the key, the drive of our response to this. We are monitoring very closely the inbound traffic (and) we have also put in place vetting of outbound traffic, so that (not only do) we minimize the risk coming in from the inbound traffic (and) make sure that we do our very best to contain the spread within country, but also (take) steps to vet those with possible symptoms among those who are leaving the country.
​Andrew Marr
The number of new cases is slowing down. Do you think you are over the worst now?

Foreign Minister Kang, Kyung-wha
Well, the peak of new cases was in late February when we had hit over 900 new confirmed cases. That has now come down to 76 new cases as of today. So yes, we are definitely seeing a normalizing trend in reduction of new cases but of course we are not complacent. This is just not about us. And we are taking this approach of openness and transparency not just domestically but to the international community because we are a country that is highly interdependent with the rest of the world. Our people travel a great deal on businesses, on family businesses, on tourism. Our economy depends on this interdependency with the outside world. So, we want to keep the doors open with the other countries. And so, as this disease spreads to many more countries, we are watching very closely, and we are committed to maintaining our open approach. It may not be applicable in other countries with less IT infrastructure and other values. But I think in the end, we have to acknowledge that this is not going to be the last time a novel pathogen becomes a global health threat. So we hope that our experience and our approach and model (not only) informs other countries dealing with this Covid 19 but also (leads) to greater international collaboration for better preparedness when this comes around the next time.

​Andrew Marr
As it will in your view, even if you get through this, this is not the end of the episode. This is the beginning of a new way of living, almost.

Foreign Minister Kang, Kyung-wha
Yes. One thing I would also like to point out; as governments, we also have to guard against panic. I think governments have to be cool headed about this and do what we do based on evidence and science, because I think declaration of the pandemic by the WHO risks turning the spread of the virus into a spread of fear and phobia. I can’t tell you how many incidents I get reports of Asians, not just Koreans, being verbally abused, even physically attacked in other countries. And governments have to take responsibility to stop this kind of incident because that is not helpful to generating the spirit of collaboration that we absolutely need to overcome this challenge together, globally.

​Andrew Marr
Indeed, Minister. Thanks very much for talking to us this morning.