Office workers often worked even after re-infection with Covid-19

A person gets tested for Covid-19 at a testing site in Dongdaemun District, eastern Seoul, Thursday morning. [NEWS1]

Korean office workers who were infected with Covid-19 multiple times said they still worked despite being sick because they felt they had to.

“I felt lightheaded after seeing the two lines on the rapid antigen test,” a 26-year-old office worker who was confirmed with Covid-19 right before the Lunar New Year holiday told the JoongAng Ilbo.

It was the second time the worker was infected with coronavirus since March last year.

Despite having a fever, the worker decided to work from home.

“When I was infected for the first time, many were getting infected so it was fine.

“But I felt bad passing on all my work to my colleagues after getting confirmed with the disease for the second time.”

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters, Korea’s Covid-19 re-infection rate reached 21.48 percent in the second week of January, the first time that the figure surpassed 20 percent.

Many said taking a leave due to an infection did not feel at all like taking a rest.

“I prayed and prayed so that I would not be the first person to become infected again,” said a 27-year-old kindergarten teacher.

She tested positive for Covid-19 for the first time last April and the second time in November.

“I felt uncomfortable letting my fellow teachers make up for classes and making my students take Covid-19 tests.”

According to a survey conducted by the civic group Gabjil 119 in August, reasons for wanting to avoid re-infection with Covid-19 included a lack of coworkers who could assume their duties while they were gone and a desire to avoid affecting colleagues’ work.

Team leaders at companies confessed they face trouble running the team when experienced employees get sick.

“It becomes very chaotic after extremely experienced employees are infected,” said a 52-year-old team leader.

“Even if employees take leave when they feel sick, we have them work from home as much as possible and distribute work to other teammates.”

The government recommends people take rest when they feel sick after coming down with Covid-19. But as companies are not required to provide paid leaves for those who are infected, many still work.

“I notified the company that I tested positive for Covid-19 for the second time and the third time, but still worked,” said a 30-year-old office worker.

The number of re-infection cases will likely rise as the rate has been gradually increasing over the past four weeks, from 17.9 percent in the third week of December to 21.48 percent in the second week of January.

There were 31,711 confirmed new cases of Covid-19 in Korea on Friday, up 15,558 from the previous day.

The indoor mask mandate will be lifted in most areas except public transportation and medical facilities next Monday.

BY CHOI SEO-IN, CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]