Follow-up measures must be enforced

President Yoon Suk Yeol made it official last week. He defined the Covid-19 pandemic as “an endemic disease” that does not require mandatory quarantine actions. Korea had been battling against the novel virus since the first patient was reported on Jan. 20, 2020. Self-isolation upon contagion will no longer be required from June 1.

Mask-wearing also won’t be compulsory in clinics and drug stores. “We are happy that people are finally fully returning to their normal lives,” said the president, summing up all the pains the people endured over the last three years.

The worst pandemic since the outbreak of the Spanish flu in 1918 infected more than 60 percent of the Korean population, or 31.35 million, of which 34,000 died. Across the world, 680 million were inflected, and 7 million died. The World Health Organization earlier this month declared that Covid-19 was no longer a “global health emergency.” Its head Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus estimated the true death toll would be closer to 20 million — nearly three times the official estimate.

The Korean government has moved to remove the remaining quarantine rules after the WHO lifted the highest level of alert for the virus on May 5, putting an end to abnormal living that lasted 40 months. During the period, students couldn’t meet their friends and unvaccinated people were denied entry at restaurants and grocery stores. People could not be at the death beds of their sick relatives due to the strict Covid-19 regulations. Those who died from the virus were even denied proper funeral proceedings due to the lack of cremation sites.

Self-employed businesses and merchants were hit hard by the rigid and unscientific rule of restricting three people to a table after 6 p.m. The government handed out universal relief checks ahead of an election to politicize the pandemic. The conservative government that took power upon winning the presidential election in May last year eased distancing measures after promising to run quarantine actions based on scientific grounds.

But the danger is hardly over. Daily infections of Covid-19 have exceeded 20,000 with increasing cases reported within hospitals. People must continue to protect themselves with masks in disease-prone locations.

Authorities must also ready a manual against lengthy infectious diseases. Monkeypox, or mpox, cases have been reported in Korea since last year. Scholars warn of revisits of pandemics. An infectious disease can hit the country at any time if health authorities let down their guard. Experts are worried that the authorities have not prepared a roadmap against the next virus spread. The government must be thorough if it does not want to repeat the same mistakes as in the past.