Seoul’s Full Cafes, Apple Store Lines Show Mass Testing Success
Cafes bustled with customers, parks teemed with sunbathers, and the first Apple store to reopen outside China had lines snaking out the door as many South Koreans — almost all wearing masks — emerged from months of self-isolation.
The scene in Seoul on a picture-perfect Saturday contrasted sharply with other nations where major cities look like ghost towns as governments lock down huge swaths of the population or impose strict restrictions on social gatherings
Initially one of the hardest-hit with the second-highest number of cases globally, South Korea has managed to curb the spread without taking measures that were too severe. It didn’t require businesses to close or restrict travel.
Despite government pleas to remain indoors with a warning of a flare-up, many Koreans ventured out Saturday, saying they believe the worst of the pandemic is over.
“I came out for the first time in many days for a date with my girlfriend,” said Kim Ji-hoon, 28, who was coming out of a crowded restaurant along one of Seoul’s more fashionable Garosu-gil road. “It’s not that I feel safer now but I do feel much more comfort in going out with the slower pace” of new infections.
South Korea launched a massive testing and contact-tracing campaign that significantly curtailed the outbreak and kept many businesses and factories open. The number of new cases fell to 18 on Friday, the lowest since the beginning of a surge in late February when the daily tally reached more than 900.
While both the U.S. and South Korea confirmed their first virus cases around the same time in late January, the number of infections in the U.S. has swelled to more than 700,000 while Korea “flattened the curve” last month and cases have slowed to just over 10,000.
Family Picnics
At Han River park in Seoul’s Banpo district, families — also in masks — were having picnics as children ran around, roller-bladed and flew kites. The parking lot was full and cars were lining up to find a space. Banker Shin Bo-ram decided to venture out on Saturday with his wife and two kids, who were “tired” of being indoors after schools were closed.
Apple Store
Apple lauded Korea as it announced the re-opening of its only store in the country. “South Korea has shown great progress during the spread of COVID-19,” the Cupertino, California-based technology giant said in a statement Friday.
The Apple store in the posh Gangnam neighborhood is the first location outside China to come back online since the iPhone maker shuttered all its stores in March to help curb the spread of the virus. It reopened China stores last month after virus cases there fell sharply.
Like many restaurants and stores in the country, Apple required customers to wear a mask, stand two meters, or six feet apart while waiting in line and have their temperatures checked before entering.
Economic concerns are clearly still there, and the impact can already be seen as signs at some shuttered shops show they were up for rent, and business owners point to a lack of traffic and consumption.
“It’s a psychological issue, i think,” said Ahn, a 30-something manager at a cosmetics shop in Garosu-gil, who said visitors to the store are just 10% what it used to be before the outbreak. She declined to give her first name.
“People are still wearing masks and mind talking face-to-face with strangers, so even those who visit our store leave quickly after buying what they need.”
A block away from the Apple store, at a boutique clothes shop, Park Choon Kweon said he is seeing more people on the street these days, but many of them are still refraining from coming inside to shop.
“We’re stuck in this coronavirus situation, not able to do anything to improve business,” said Park, who had to close his women’s clothing shop next door last month, and is now helping manage his wife’s store.
‘New Normal’
Fearing the potential for a “second wave” of infections, Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged “everyone to continue to follow social distancing and personal hygiene guidelines during the weekend.”
“We cannot put our guard down yet as there are still potential for high rate of infections,” Vice Health Minister Kim Ganglip said in a televised briefing Saturday morning. “We believe that we need to continue social distancing and not loosen it up.”
In the meanwhile, Kim said South Korea’s government is drafting guidelines for a return to a “new normal,” including modifying quarantine procedures and social distancing measures.
“Our society has been successfully delaying the spread of Covid-19 virus through social distancing,’ he said. “But that does not mean that the virus disappears completely or we are able to return to life we had led before the outbreak.”