The South Korean government has now reported 90 new cases of COVID-19 after a week or two of decreased cases and low rates of morbidity. This brings to 7,400 cases of infection after the first case of the coronavirus in the country was declared last January 20.
While the government had reported containment measures had halted the spread of the virus, these new cases which has now been reported in the country’s capital Seoul, had dashed hopes that the government had successfully provided the world some hope that this virus is “controllable.” Most of these new cases are employees of a call center which is located at the heart of the city.
The South Korean government says not only are these employees infected, they have infected their families as well. The country is next to China in terms of reporting huge numbers of infected persons, although morbidity rates is just 2-3%
While the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared coronavirus as a pandemic, the global health agency had expressed hope that this virus is controllable, citing progress in China and South Korea, which are now considered to be at the epicenter of the global virus spread.
WHO says 118 countries are now infected with 57 countries reporting ten or less cases of confirmed COVID-19. Tedos Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, expresses the organisation’s sentiment on the “inaction” of certain governments in containment measures.
The global health agency is also alarmed over the “severity” and “breadth” of the coronavirus spread. Europe, particularly Spain and Italy, is fast becoming a hub of infection.
Eric Toner of the John Hopkins Center for Infectious disease describes the possibility of this virus spreading into all areas of a territory, and will not abate for the next several weeks.
