Protective items against the virus have been running short since the outbreak’s onset at the end of January. Prices for face masks with respirator filters have shot up nearly tenfold, despite the government’s repeated vows to resolve the shortage. Faced with shortages, the government started clamping down on hoarding, price gouging and smuggling of face masks and other goods in high demand from ...

South Korea’s virus tally has skyrocketed from double to quadruple digits in a matter of a week, with the number of infected hovering well above 3,000 as of Saturday afternoon. As fears grip the country, streets are empty with more Koreans choosing to stay home, and health officials and experts are campaigning to discourage the public from going outside. Incheon International Airport said Saturd...

South Korea has been adding new coronavirus patients by the hundreds every day since Saturday with no end in near sight. Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the country had 2,337 confirmed COVID-19 patients as of Friday afternoon, up 571 from the same time the previous day, with 30,237 more being tested. Of them, 62 are in Seoul, 72 in Gyeonggi, 65 in Busan, 409 in North Gyeong...

South Korea is trying new ploys to battle the novel coronavirus outbreak, with two of the latest being drive-thru clinics and disinfecting drones. Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, set up a drive-thru testing facility on Wednesday, where symptom checks, sample collection and payment receipt are done in one-stop fashion in under 10 minutes. Gyeonggi Province communications official Park Hyun-su told Th...

The mental ward of a hospital at the center of a slew of coronavirus infections is accused of having poorly managed communal settings for inpatients, exposing them to the disease en masse, a National Medical Center committee said Wednesday. Addressing a press briefing, the center’s clinical management committee for emerging infectious diseases said upon onsite inspections, the hospital was found...

A doctors’ group in virus-stricken Daegu has argued in support of consultations and prescriptions over the phone to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The Daegu Medical Association’s statement came a day after its parent organization, the Korean Medical Association, clashed with the government Monday over emergency measures that would allow patients to seek prescriptions without seeing doctors fac...

A Mongolian patient, 35, died 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday while receiving isolated treatment for COVID-19, or the new coronavirus, at a hospital in South Korea. He was taken to Myongji Hospital in southern Gyeonggi Province on Monday for esophageal hemorrhage, after which he tested positive for the virus. The hospital said he was immediately transported to a negative pressure room as he was in a criti...

According to the society, 39,279 samples from 24,248 persons had been tested as of Saturday. Sung Heung-sup, a laboratory medicine professor at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, said the current COVID-19 testing kits were “beyond expectation” in terms of specificity and sensitivity. But in stages when the amount of virus in the body remains low, a patient may test negative even as he or she may act...

South Korea’s management of COVID-19 infection data has been praised for its transparency, but there are growing concerns over personal information of confirmed patients being publicized. Some critics say wide publicity does not just violate privacy, but is bad practice in terms of disease control. Posting patients’ recent travels could deter suspected patients from seeking help due to fears of...

South Korea reported the sixth death from the new coronavirus that originated in China on Sunday, recording three deaths in one day. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, a 59-year-old man -- an inpatient at a psychiatric ward of a hospital in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province -- was the latest casualty. The patient was moved to Dungguk University Hospital in the neighboring city o...

As the incidence of new COVID-19 cases surges in South Korea, health experts say the country needs to revise its action plan to withstand the long-term impact of the outbreak. In a protracted fight against the disease, pacing is key and personal precautions imperative, experts said. Admit patients based on severity of symptoms COVID-19 patients, in principle, should be isolated in negative pres...

Medical societies said over the weekend the new coronavirus outbreak in South Korea was far from peaking, warning the coming week could see a further escalation after spiking recently. “Korea is past a point where the government or the Korea Centers for Disease Prevention and Control’s response alone can contain the disease,” said Kim Dong-hyun, president of the Korean Society of Epidemiology an...

A series of novel coronavirus cases without epidemiological ties to previous patients have been reported in Korea in the past four days, with one believed to be linked to at least 15 others. A Korean woman, 61, who started having symptoms as early as Feb. 7, continued with her daily tasks until she was found to be infected Tuesday. Over the 11 intervening days, authorities say she came into clo...

As health authorities struggle to determine how the country’s latest patients contracted the virus without China ties or contact with reported patients, the government on Monday once again vowed “preemptive measures” to stop the virus from spreading to the wider public. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the 30th case of COVID-19 -- the novel coronavirus which origina...

A patient with the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, may face penalties for not following quarantine rules, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday. According to the KCDC, a 43-year-old Korean man had lunch with his family at his home in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Feb. 1 while still under quarantine. He told authorities he started having symptoms that morning, which pro...