TACKLING COVID AROUND THE WO
South Korea’s pandemic response has, so far, prevented a national lockdown and significantly minimised the spread of COVID-19 across the country, with fewer than 450 deaths recorded. Its quick response and high capacity testing system has received worldwide recognition, being attributed by some to lessons learnt from the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015. Dr Chu Hyein, 43, a family doctor in a clinic located in north west Seoul, highlights the extensive and important role family doctors have played in South Korea’s pandemic response. The doors to most family medicine clinics have remained ‘firmly open’ throughout the crisis, with a primary responsibility of triaging and assessing patients with COVID-19 symptoms, to determine if a referral is required for a free screening test. “All public screening tests are free of charge. We can refer patients who need tests to screening clinics without any hesitation,” Hyein explained. “Patients who test positive are referred to the Central Disaster and Safety Headquarters, who in turn refer them on to an ICU, a ‘negative pressure ward’ (special wards pumped with negative pressure to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases), or a ‘living treatment facility’ (with onsite nurses, for patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms to
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and were quarantined in hospitals and living treatment facilities,’ she said. Hyein says the spread of ‘fake news’ by political groups suggesting a government exaggeration of the severity of the virus is now causing widespread confusion, making patients more reluctant to quarantine and putting vulnerable groups such as the elderly at risk. She says that family doctors are playing an important role in the fight against propaganda by educating patients with key public health messages to maintain community safety against the virus. Doctor Mike, Instagram
SOUTH KOREA
self-isolate in). Referrals depend on the severity of initial systems, as well as other risk factors such as any underlying health conditions or a patient’s age. “People could count on us during the pandemic,” she said, “not only to help with physical symptoms of the virus but to also provide lots of reassurance to our anxious communities whenever they felt scared or depressed by the coronavirus” Family doctors worked Monday to Saturday, offering support to patients remotely on the phone who were concerned about their symptoms or had fears of coming to visit the medical centre. “Of course, we were also continuing to manage other chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and asthma too,” she says. At the start of the pandemic, Hyein also volunteered at the Public Community Health Centre for COVID-19 screenings after work and at weekends, assessing potentially symptomatic patients, and conducting tests. Her experience emphasised the incredibly low prevalence of COVID-19 in the community. “Out of the hundreds that I tested, only two patients were confirmed positive cases of COVID-19
NEW YORK, USA New York was one of the first hit areas in the United States, and one-time epicentre of the pandemic. Dr Mike Varshavski lives in New York and practises family medicine in New Jersey. He says that people saw COVID-19 as a ‘New York problem’, not recognising the seriousness of the pandemic at a national level. “I don’t think you can fully prepare for a pandemic and there are things at a federal and state level that I think we could have done better. It’s important we look back and assess this – we’ve been doing that in New York and can give advice to states that are hardest hit now.”
