South Korea Elections: Ruling party wins amidst COVID-19 pandemic

In national assembly elections, the South Korea ruling party has won a landslide victory.• Mr. Moon’s Democratic Party won 163 seats.

• The party’s sister group, the Platform Party, was predicted to win a further 17 seats.

• The voting system in South Korea combines direct and proportional votes.

• This is the biggest victory by any party since 1987.

• A remarkable turnout has been recorded which was around 66.2%.

Facts about the South Korea Elections 2020:

• Each polling station was equipped with hand sanitizer and gloves.

• Social distancing norms were strictly followed.

• Voters’ temperatures were checked at the entrances of polling booths.

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COVID-19 Cases in South Korea:

• As of 18 April, the country has a total of 10,613 cases and 229 deaths, according to the data compiled by Worldometer.

• Over 20,000 people are tested every day for coronavirus in South Korea

South Korea’s Different Approach to fight pandemic:

• The country has created a vast network of public & private labs.

• The facility of drive-through centers has also been provided where people can check their health profile.

• It is worth noting that as South Korea failed to contain the 2015 outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome or MERS, the country overhauled their response to respiratory infections, ramping up the production of test kits and making infection control units within the hospitals and negative pressure rooms.

The backbone of Korea’s success has been:

• Mass and indiscriminate Testing

• Rigorous contact tracing

• Quarantine

• Korea’s efficient and highly regulated healthcare system

• Predominantly, South Korea immediately started testing thousands of asymptomatic people, at the outset.

• Korea used a unique tracking app (Corona 100m) that informs citizens of infected cases within the distance of 100 meters, thus effectively leveraging technology.

• They’ve used testing aggressively to identify cases, including mild cases and even suspected cases.

• They’ve isolated thousands of people who may have been exposed to confirmed cases.

• According to some reports, the nation has also used data from several sources such as surveillance cameras to unlock the social connections of suspected cases.

• By early February, South Korea used extensive contact tracing to identify the travel of each confirmed case, recording even the minute details like a person’s seat number.

• The data was also anonymously posted online so that citizens could check if they came in contact with a confirmed case. This became a significant component of South Korea’s containment strategy.

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