Decisive action, speed and penalties stand in contrast to Japan's red tape

Nikkei Asian Review
Date: April 21, 2020
By: Yosuke Onchi and Kernsaku Ihara, Nikkei staff writers

SEOUL/TAIPEI — South Korea and Taiwan have won praise and attention for fast and effective responses to the novel coronavirus that have so far allowed them to avoid the sort of damage seen elsewhere despite their proximity to the disease's original epicenter of mainland China.

South Korea has seen over 10,600 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far but reported just 13 new cases on Monday. Taiwan has just over 400 cases in total, with six deaths. Authorities in both places say they consider the outbreak to be under control.

Both share similar approaches to combating the outbreak, based on strong central authorities born of lessons learned after the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 2003 and 2004, and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2015 that killed 38 people in South Korea. 

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a ministerial-level government arm that is legally authorized in a public health emergency to request action from government agencies. The requests, in effect, carry the same weight as government directives.    [FULL  STORY]