Reuters on March 12 compared the responses to the novel coronavirus outbreak in Italy and Korea in its special report "Italy and South Korea virus outbreaks reveal disparity in deaths and tactics." (Reuters screenshot)

By Lee Hana

With COVID-19 spreading across the globe, countries are looking to Korea as a role model for its speedy and far-reaching testing capabilities in tackling the outbreak as well as its transparency.

On March 12, Reuters in its special report "Italy and South Korea virus outbreaks reveal disparity in deaths and tactics" compared the two countries' contrasting responses to widespread infection. 

"As the virus courses through the world, the story of two outbreaks illustrates a coming problem for countries now grappling with an explosion in cases," the report said.

"Both countries saw their first cases of the disease called COVID-19 in late January. South Korea has since reported 67 deaths out of nearly 8,000 confirmed cases, after testing more than 222,000 people. In contrast, Italy has had 1,016 deaths and identified more than 15,000 cases after carrying out more than 73,000 tests on an unspecified number of people." 

While saying "epidemiologists say it is not possible to compare the numbers directly," Reuters added that "some say the dramatically different outcomes point to an important insight: Aggressive and sustained testing is a powerful tool for fighting the virus."

The BBC on March 12 called Korea a role model for its response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the article "Coronavirus in South Korea: How 'trace, test and treat' may be saving lives." (BBC screenshot)

The Washington Post on March 11 published an op-ed by Josh Rogin titled "South Korea shows that democracies can succeed against the coronavirus," in which the columnist commended Korea for taking advantage of its inherent strength as a democracy to show the world how to protect the public against an outbreak.

Comparing Korea to other countries, he said the number of daily confirmed cases has steadily declined in Korea thanks to "measures that focus on education, transparency and mobilizing civil society." 

"South Korea's most effective weapon against the virus has been to rapidly expand testing," he added. 

The BBC on March 12 gave its evaluation in the article "Coronavirus in South Korea: How 'trace, test and treat' may be saving lives."

"Nearly 20,000 people are being tested every day for coronavirus in South Korea, more people per capita than anywhere else in the world," it wrote, adding that "health officials believe this approach may be saving lives."

The British news agency also cited "no shortage of testing kits" in Korea" and that "the accuracy of the country's COVID-19 test is around 98%." 

"The ability to test so many people has made the country a role model as others look to battle their own coronavirus outbreaks," it added.

hlee10@korea.kr