I FEEL ashamed every time I read an article about how South Korea had dealt with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus. I automatically compare what South Korea has been doing to what we have done, which is not much. No doubt I find excuses for our Ministry of Health because the virus is ambiguous and cannot be annihilated easily. Dealing with this virus and attempts to contain it are extremely difficult tasks. South Korea has the required societal culture. People quickly responded to the government's warnings and began taking all measures that would curb the spread of the infection. There are strong fears the virus that has hit South Korea may also spread to the other Southeast Asian countries. Frankly speaking, the South Koreans have displayed a big lesson in transparency. It is true that this lesson only came after immense pressure from the media, which obliged health officials to admit the fact that the country has been hard hit by the coronavirus. They did not bury their heads in the sand but openly announced there were confirmed coronavirus cases in 24 heath establishments. The ministry publicly announced that more than a thousand people have so far contracted the disease, a number of them have died, some of them quarantined in hospitals and all of them have been banned from going out of their homes, let alone travel abroad. We have to note that the first case of coronavirus was reported in South Korea in May. In this short span of time, the government of South Korea has succeeded in securing the participation of the South Korean people in its ferocious fight against the disease. The government was also able to educate people about the correct and most efficient methods of combating the deadly virus. The Korean companies and factories reacted positively to the crisis. They distributed free of charge among people along the streets millions of the face masks and hand cleaners. The hand sanitizers and the masks were also distributed in schools and universities. They were given these free of charge as part of the combined effort of the government, the companies and people to fight the infection. When we go a little back down memory lane, we will discover that some of our merchants and factories tried to exploit the crisis to make more financial gains. They sold the masks and the sanitizers at increased prices. Unlike South Korea, the masks and the sanitizers were not distributed among people free of charge as part of the efforts to curb the spread of the virus. To increase prices legally, our merchants claimed that these materials were scarce in the market. The South Korean Health Ministry attempted to hide the news about the existence of the coronavirus in the country. They are not to be blamed. Every official anywhere in the world will do this. No government wants to create public panic. When the ministry was certain that this was the fearful virus itself, it came into the open and bravely told the public that the country has confirmed cases of coronavirus. The ministry did not shy away from saying that some of its hospitals had confirmed ceases of coronavirus infections. It made plans to treat the hospitals' staff and other people who may get the disease. The latest the Korean government has done in this regard is to tap the telephones of infected people to know their whereabouts and to make sure that they have not gone out of their homes. The ministry remains in constant contact with all the patients. Tackling any disease depends largely on the level of transparency and trust between the people and the government. We should not shy away from considering the ways and means South Korea has adopted in dealing with the coronavirus and emulate them. We have to benefit from the Korean experience though we are ahead of it in the discovery of the virus. It appeared in our country as early as 2012, while it appeared in South Korea only in May. We have to learn the lessons from Korea because the Haj season is fast approaching. To summarize, we are ahead of them in the discovery of the virus and they are far ahead of us in treatment and preventive measures.
