IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i24p9551-d465416.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Keeping Low Reproductive Number Despite the Rebound Population Mobility in Korea, a Country Never under Lockdown during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Soyoung Kim

    (Department of Mathematics, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Korea)

  • Yae-Jean Kim

    (Department of Pediatrics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul 06351, Korea)

  • Kyong Ran Peck

    (Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul 06351, Korea)

  • Youngsuk Ko

    (Department of Mathematics, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Korea)

  • Jonggul Lee

    (INSERM, Pierre Louis Institute of Epidemiology and Public Health, Sorbonne Université, 75646 Paris, France)

  • Eunok Jung

    (Department of Mathematics, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Korea)

Abstract

Nonpharmaceutical intervention has been one of the most important strategies to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 in the communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Korea has a unique experience that we had the first large outbreak during the early pandemic and could flatten the epidemic curve without lockdown. In this study, the effective reproductive numbers were calculated for the entire nation and Seoul (the capital city) Metropolitan Area from February 16–15 July, where 60% of the population reside. We compared the changes in population mobility data and reproductive number trends according to the changes in the government’s nonpharmaceutical intervention strategy. The total daily mobility decreased when Korea had the first wave of a large outbreak in February–March 2020, which was mainly caused by the decrease of daily noncommuting mobility. However, daily commuting mobility from 16 February to 30 June 2020 was maintained at a similar level since there was no national lockdown for workers who commute between home and work. During the first half-year of 2020, Korea could control the outbreak to a manageable level without a significant decrease in daily public mobility. However, it may be only possible when the public follows personal hygiene principles and social distancing without crisis fatigue or reduced compliance.

Suggested Citation

  • Soyoung Kim & Yae-Jean Kim & Kyong Ran Peck & Youngsuk Ko & Jonggul Lee & Eunok Jung, 2020. "Keeping Low Reproductive Number Despite the Rebound Population Mobility in Korea, a Country Never under Lockdown during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:24:p:9551-:d:465416
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9551/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9551/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kim, Kijin & Kim, Soyoung & Lee, Donghyun & Park, Cyn-Young, 2023. "Impacts of social distancing policy and vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Korea," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Ratih Oktri Nanda & Aldilas Achmad Nursetyo & Aditya Lia Ramadona & Muhammad Ali Imron & Anis Fuad & Althaf Setyawan & Riris Andono Ahmad, 2022. "Community Mobility and COVID-19 Dynamics in Jakarta, Indonesia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-12, May.
    3. Hae Ran Kim & Eun Jung Kim, 2021. "Factors Associated with Mental Health among International Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-13, October.
    4. Miji Kwon & Wonyoung Yang, 2022. "Mask-Wearing Behaviors after Two Years of Wearing Masks Due to COVID-19 in Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Jongmin Lee & Seok-Min Lee & Eunok Jung, 2021. "How Important Is Behavioral Change during the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Mathematical Modeling Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-12, September.
    6. Minjun Kim & Dongbeom Kim & Daeyong Jin & Geunhan Kim, 2023. "Application of Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) in Urban Growth Modeling: A Case Study of Seoul Metropolitan Area, Korea," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, February.
    7. Paolo Contiero & Alessandro Borgini & Martina Bertoldi & Anna Abita & Giuseppe Cuffari & Paola Tomao & Maria Concetta D’Ovidio & Stefano Reale & Silvia Scibetta & Giovanna Tagliabue & Roberto Boffi & , 2022. "An Epidemiological Study to Investigate Links between Atmospheric Pollution from Farming and SARS-CoV-2 Mortality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-12, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:24:p:9551-:d:465416. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.