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COVID-19 in South Korea: Proper Timing for Easing Mask Mandates After COVID-19 Vaccination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2021

Yun-Jung Kang Open the ORCID record for Yun-Jung Kang [Opens in a new window]
Yun-Jung Kang*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, Ansan University, Ansan, Republic of Korea
*
Corresponding author: Yun-Jung Kang, Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Objective:

As of July 25, 2021, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 1,422 new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, 188,848 total cases, and 2,073 total deaths (1.10% fatality rates). Since the first severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) case was reported, efforts to find a treatment and vaccine against COVID-19 have been widespread.

Methods:

Four vaccines are on the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) emergency use listing and are approved of their usage; BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, AZD1222, and Ad26.COV2.S. Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 need at least 14 d to achieve effectiveness. Thus, people should abide by prevention and control measures, including wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing.

Results:

However, a lot of new cases were reported after vaccinations, as many people did not follow the prevention control measures before the end of the 14-d period. There is no doubt we need to break free from mask mandates.

Conclusions:

But let us not decide the timing in haste. Even if the mask mandates are eased, they should be changed depending on the number of reported cases, vaccinations, as well as prevention and control measures on how circumstances are changing under the influence of mutant coronavirus.

Keywords

Breakthrough infectionCOVID-19MaskSARS-CoV-2vaccination
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , October 2022 , pp. 1832 - 1834
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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