For big, difficult problems, we need big, creative solutions.

A few highlights from this great read on South Korea’s #coronavirus strategy. A useful template for other countries.

1/8 https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/coronavirus-cases-have-dropped-sharply-south-korea-whats-secret-its-success

Their strategy focuses on high diagnostic capacity (lots of testing!), contact tracing, and case isolation.

South Korea has tested more than 270,000 people. That’s 5200 tests per million inhabitants, versus 72 tests per million in the US. 2/8

The national testing capacity has reached a staggering 15,000 tests per day. There are 43 drive-through testing stations nationwide.

I know we would all like to see this type of capacity in our own countries. 3/8

For those who test positive, cell phone and credit card data are used to reconstruct movements. Anonymized data is made available on an app to allow others to determine if they were exposed.

Certainly some privacy concerns here, but there may be creative solutions. 4/8

While contact tracing is key to their strategy, when cases surged in February, they focused tracing on a large church cluster. Over 80% of church contacts with symptoms were positive vs. 10% linked to other cases.

They prioritized resources to maximize detection. 5/8

High-risk patients w/ underlying illnesses get priority for hospitalization. Repurposed facilities are used to house and care for the moderately ill. Close contacts with minimal or no symptoms self-quarantine at home for two weeks. 6/8

Learning from their 2015 MERS outbreak, they dramatically strengthened their hospital infection prevention and control. So far, there are no reports of infections of COVID-19 among South Korean health care workers. 7/8

Countries will need to develop strategies appropriate to their local context, but certainly we have a lot to learn from South Korea. There is opportunity for great innovation, and people from diverse fields can and should contribute. END 8/8