Policy Review and Modeling Analysis of Mitigation Measures for Coronavirus Disease Epidemic Control, Health System, and Disease Burden, South Korea

• Published in: Emerging infectious diseases Vol. 27; no. 11; pp. 2753 - 2760
• Main Authors: Kim, Hae-Young, Oh, In-Hwan, Lee, Jacob, Seon, Jeong-Yeon, Jeon, Woo-Hwi, Park, Jae Seok, Nam, Sung-Il, Thakkar, Niket, Selvaraj, Prashanth, McGillen, Jessica, Klein, Daniel, Braithwaite, Scott, Bershteyn, Anna, Lee, Seung Heon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases 01-11-2021; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Subjects: Asymptomatic; Censuses; Contact tracing; Control; coronavirus disease; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Disease transmission; Epidemics; Fatalities; Health insurance; Hospital care; Hospitalization; Hospitals; Infections; Pandemics; Patients; Planning; Policy Review and Modeling Analysis of Mitigation Measures for Coronavirus Disease Epidemic Control, Health System, and Disease Burden, South Korea; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Social distancing; South Korea; Statistics; Surveillance; viruses; South Korea
• ISSN: 1080-6040; 1080-6059
• DOI: 10.3201/eid2711.203779

We reviewed the timeline of key policies for control of the coronavirus disease epidemic and determined their impact on the epidemic and hospital burden in South Korea. Using a discrete stochastic transmission model, we estimated that multilevel policies, including extensive testing, contact tracing, and quarantine, reduced contact rates by 90% and rapidly decreased the epidemic in Daegu and nationwide during February‒March 2020. Absence of these prompt responses could have resulted in a >10-fold increase in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths by May 15, 2020, relative to the status quo. The model suggests that reallocation of persons who have mild or asymptomatic cases to community treatment centers helped avoid overwhelming hospital capacity and enabled healthcare workers to provide care for more severely and critically ill patients in hospital beds and negative-pressure intensive care units. As small outbreaks continue to occur, contact tracing and maintenance of hospital capacity are needed.