This photo from Yonhap News TV shows social distancing rule guidance and customers at a cafe in Seoul.
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to drag on, the effects of various non-medical virus mitigation measures such as mask-wearing or social distancing are slowly dimming.
A research team from Chung-Ang University Hospital compared the epidemiological data and the timing of the introduction of various non-medical measures between COVID-19 and rhinovirus, which causes the common cold, from January 2020 to August 2021.
The research paper was written during the fouth wave of the pandemic in Jul. 2021, after the three major outbreaks in February, August, and November 2020.
The study showed that the time spent by social distancing and other non-medical measures to take initial effect and the time to reach the maximum effect increased over time, while its maximum effect lasted for shorter periods.
Compared to the first two major outbreaks, the effects of social distancing had drastically been reduced during the third outbreak in November 2020.
The dwindling effects of non-medical measures became increasingly evident since November 2020, before the introduction of vaccines or the outbreak of the delta variant.
“It is time to reconsider the methods for non-medical virus transmission mitigation by going beyond social distancing measures and imposing different restrictions for infection hotspots and other safer locations,” said Choi Seong-ho, an infectious disease professor at Chung-Ang University Hospital.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
