SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Unlike most medical centers that have been hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic, plastic surgery clinics set a new record for the number of surgical procedures conducted last year. A local liposuction clinic 365mc reported Tuesday that it had conducted a whopping 31,241 liposuction surgeries last year, setting a [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The medical community is suffering from serious psychological consequences as the coronavirus pandemic continues unabated. The National Center for Disaster Trauma conducted a survey last year of 319 healthcare workers fighting the pandemic, 49.5 percent of whom demonstrated suicidal risks. Among the respondents, 41.2 percent were struggling with depression, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of counterfeit South Korean banknotes fell to a record low in 2020, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic caused a decline in cash usage. Last year, the number of fake banknotes found in South Korea came to 272, down 6.8 percent from [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Travel agencies struggling with the ongoing pandemic are turning to selling imports of specialty goods in a bid to limit their losses. Very Good Tour Co. recently sold 3,000 cans of olive oil from Valencia, Spain in just three hours after their release. The company has been importing high [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s finance ministry has increasingly found itself in hot water over growing calls to dig deeper into state coffers in response to the pandemic-caused economic slump, as it is wary of the country’s ballooning debt. A row over the finance ministry’s fiscal role reignited this week after Prime [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Park Hye-seong, a 39-year-old mother of two, recently subscribed to a rice delivery service offered by a specialty shop featuring “premium rice” in pursuit of better tasting and healthier varieties, a decision that would have been unlikely before the coronavirus pandemic struck. “My children have taken online classes and [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — When the novel coronavirus first arrived in South Korea a year ago, Bang Su (alias) didn’t know it would upend her career and family all of a sudden. The Pilates instructor worked less than two months last year as on-and-off social distancing measures restricted the operation of a sports [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports of agricultural and livestock products advanced 7.7 percent on-year in 2020 on the back of growing demand for healthier foodstuffs amid the new coronavirus pandemic, data showed Wednesday. Outbound shipments of such goods reached a record high of US$7.5 billion last year, compared with $7 billion [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Furniture sales last year exceeded 10 trillion won (US$9 billion) as a result of the coronavirus pandemic forcing people to spend more time indoors and a growing interest in interior design. Statistics Korea and furniture makers reported retail sales of 9.24 trillion won between January and November of last [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean children are gaining weight as the coronavirus pandemic drags on, forcing them to stay home. A lack of physical activity and increased consumption of snacks and late-night meals are seen as primary factors. At a local academic conference last year, one of the studies pointed to a [...]