Medical staff in protective gear work at a 'drive-thru' testing center for the novel coronavirus disease of COVID-19 in Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu, South Korea, March 3, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Chad Terhune, Dan Levine, Hyunjoo Jin, Jane Lanhee Lee, Reuters: Special Report: How Korea trounced U.S. in race to test people for coronavirus
SEOUL - In late January, South Korean health officials summoned representatives from more than 20 medical companies from their lunar New Year celebrations to a conference room tucked inside Seoul’s busy train station.
One of the country’s top infectious disease officials delivered an urgent message: South Korea needed an effective test immediately to detect the novel coronavirus, then running rampant in China. He promised the companies swift regulatory approval.
Though there were only four known cases in South Korea at that point, “we were very nervous. We believed that it could develop into a pandemic,” one attendee, Lee Sang-won, an infectious diseases expert at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Reuters.
“We acted like an army,” he said.
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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 19, 2020
Answering Questions About COVID-19 -- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Italy's coronavirus disaster: At first, officials urged people to go out for an aperitif. Now, doctors must choose who dies -- Linton Besser, ABC News Online
As world cowers, China glimpses coronavirus aftermath -- AFP
Coronavirus rocks already strained ties between US and China -- Matthew Lee, AP
The Coronavirus Is Expediting Middle East Outcomes -- Jay Mens, National Interest
Ravaged by war, Middle Eastern countries face a new scourge -- Isabel Debre, AP
What Australia could learn from China's response to coronavirus COVID-19 -- Christina Zhou and Bang Xiao
Coronavirus has reached India, but I feel safer here than I might back home in Australia -- James Oaten in New Delhi, ABC News Online
Hello from Italy. Your future is grimmer than you think -- Ida Garibaldi, The Washington Post
I’m a Doctor in Britain. We’re Heading Into the Abyss. -- DNYUZ
How long will Americans be fighting the coronavirus? -- Christina Larsopn and Michelle R. Smith, AP
COVID-19 Affects National Security in Novel Ways -- John McLaughlin, OZY
We Are About to Find Out How Robust Civilization Is -- Matt Ridley, Spectator
In Mexico, a cartel is taking over: Jalisco New Generation -- Mark Stevenson, AP
Who will cave first in Saudi-Russia oil price war? -- Tim Daiss, Asia Times
