Seoul, South Korea: COVID-19 and Diversity
Everything seemed fine for the lunar new year. Graduated high schoolers planned their graduation trip to overseas with friends. Some families arranged their 3 day holidays in Bali with their loved ones. However, everything turned out to be the opposite of what they expected.
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported on 20th January 2020, and the number of infected was increasing exponentially. Yet those hospitals and nursing homes were protected prior to any facilities. Tough lessons learned from FMD, SARs, H1N1, and MERs meant government bodies tried to keep social activities alive while quarantining under control. The measures were ‘trace-and-track’ and lockdown only places that are most likely to have crowds, and they were taken. However, many situations have not gotten any better in any way, even now. The country has locked its border by asking foreign travelers to pay all costs for 14-days of mandatory-self-quarantine at a designated facility.
The first big wave and arise of cult religion
In South Korea, 50% of citizens are found to be religious. Although Korea does not have any designated national religion. Thereby, the church is often used as a place for community gathering for locals. But some are taking advantage of this characteristic for personal benefit. They not only exploit believers from the church but also the non-religious groups.
The first approach made by cultists to the non-religious group is to find one who seeks social help from society. The unemployment rate hit a record high in the past decade, and lots of youth were losing their motivation to live, yet had to search for a social place that respects and cares for them. They are starting from a small social bonding group, which seems irrelevant to religious activity. Once the victim shows more commitment to the group, then the believers begin to make the victim a part of the cult. In fact, roughly 60% of registered believers were aged 20 to 30.
Once the victim became a part of the cult’s religion, the victim has to sacrifice everything for the sake of twisted religious belief. Nonetheless, the bonding victim made in church cut every other social connection of the victim’s. Yet, the cult has its own enterprises and NGOs. So they could work there while repeating the same as they experienced.
So what do these ‘churches’ and ‘cults’ have to do with the COVID-19 outbreak? It is because one of the churches under the largest cult in Korea was found to be an epicenter in the cluster of a majority of cases. The spread began in early February, with the 31st patient who tested positive for COVID-19. They were found to have visited the 10 story building in downtown of the third biggest city in South Korea. The infected citizens went to the church, with thousands of believers. They were forced to kneel next to each other while praying and share their foods. Such actions exacerbated the spread and created 5,212 patients and 11,037 confirmed cases (based on the data on 17th May 2020).
It took more than a month for the government to trace and track the spread. Believers tend not to expose themselves to the public, as they were afraid of the social pressure they would receive. The hate on victims got much harsher as time passed, and it made it much more difficult for the body in charge to trace and track the infected. Luckily, the church leader was charged with legal infringements and the government body was able to find a list of the registered believers that helped to ‘trace-and-track’.
Two months have passed since the beginning of the spread at the cult church, the daily lifestyle of Koreans appeared to return to normal and everything is under control. In the last week of April, only 4 percent of patients were infected from unknown sources. This was how the demeanor of Korea used to be. Meanwhile, the Korean local economy was badly damaged and citizens sought an easing of quarantine measures. KCDC (Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) advised the government to wait for a term until the nation has zero spread in the community. However, the governors ignored it and prioritized promoting domestic economic activity. The announcement was made at the end of April, and it was projected to be imposed on 6th May.
With the governors’ decision on easing the quarantine measures, lots of businesses that were advised to close reopened their doors to welcome COVID-stressed-customers. Night clubs were one of them. The same strict prevention initiatives were enforced for the clubs too. All the people who visit the club have had to write down their name and mobile number. The temperature was taken of the visitors and they were not allowed to enter without masks on.
However, the government failed to monitor any activity that could possibly spread the virus. The government chose a Laissez-faire approach for citizens not to suppress their rights, but sophisticated action was not made. As a result, an infected person visited several clubs around the area in Seoul and contacted thousands of people.
The second wave
With trace-and-track measures, the KCDC tracked all the possible groups of people who stayed in the area during a certain period of time when the infected was there too. It took roughly a week to figure out all those in contact with the spread and force them to self-quarantine for 14 days. But at this time, the media highlighted that the infected visited LGBT clubs and saunas for sexual purposes. More videos and clips taken at the places were revealed to the public and this fuelled public hate toward LGBT groups. The public was already stressed from COVID-19 news and did not want to be infected while they were trying to get their lives back to normal.
In fact, the hate actually made club visitors hesitate to report to the government and get PCR-test. While KCDC appealed against hate toward LGBT groups; and promised to keep them safe, the civil government of Seoul worked together with telecom companies to track all the mobile signals caught during a certain period, under the Special Act on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases.
These two cases were enough to bring the spread of virus under control, but a few controversies remained. The measures have cleared where the spread is going, yet it has exposed so many privacies. But some cases have awoken us to a shady part of Korean society which has never been cared for and is disrespected. Most victims in the cult religions were desperate for help from social bonding, but Korean cities did not have many places for them to go. The LGBT groups, in a very conservative Korean society, had to find their own way of social bonding, but in the shadows.
Vision: To develop or diversify
The government of Seoul has imposed new blueprints for the future. Which makes the city resilient enough against the outbreak. By dividing the city into 5 different areas, with 116 sub-centers, to diversify their function and utilize its function to develop. At the same time, the governor promised to strengthen the public health center facilities; and enable the social system for the center to serve local demand. Moreover, mobile infrastructures in the city will be organized in a chart. So that in the occurrence of public risk in the city, people can be notified to avoid the risk. Such ideas like ‘green corridors’ (more parks) and ‘make each 116 sub-centers to have their own sustainable social system’.
However, the important aspect that Koreans are missing is ‘diversity’ and ‘respect’ to each other. Rapid urbanization from the 70s to 2010s classified citizens by their degree of wealth. Real estate and construction companies built more private housing to catch up with the demands of the wealthy; and the government’s population scheme. This led half of Korean households to live in an apartment complex. The value of the properties tends to go along with an average income level of resident households. This economic gap made it hard for citizens to understand each other and resulted in mistreatment. South Korea definitely needs a place and social atmosphere for youngsters to relax, naturally; get to know more about each other regardless of their backgrounds. Understand their differences, but at the least cost of the intervention.
References
Al Jazeera, ‘Prolonged war’: South Korea reports spike in coronavirus cases
New York Times, Shadowy Church Is at Center of Coronavirus Outbreak in South Korea
Korea.net, Size of Religious Groups
Seoul City Hall, Public Discussion on Post-Corona Urban Planning in Seoul https://youtu.be/5KWIW3tlCVk
Sky News, Coronavirus: South Korea scrambles to contain outbreak from nightclub cluster linked to one man
Washington Post, A ‘travel log’ of the times in South Korea: Mapping the movements of coronavirus carriers
Time, How South Korea’s Coronavirus Outbreak Got so Quickly out of Control
