Updates on the English teachers quarantined in Korea for swine flu.

There have been a couple new bits of information out about those English teachers quarantined in South Korea after some of these new arrivals tested positive for swine flu.

* On Roboseyo's post, one of the quarantined bloggers said, "I think it's actually about 70 teachers altogether, of which 30 are American."

* A commentor on my post---a Dave's regular and a frequent visitor here as of late---said he's also one of the quarantined. He's got himself a blog, too. In a subsequent comment on my site, he passes along some interesting info:

The bullshit thing is that, while there are some Koreans among us, most of the Koreans with whom we had contact are quarantined-in-place (at home.) It seems fairly xenophobic as Koreans have been getting infected just as easily as the foreigners. We didn't bring the flu from the US, it's likely (according to the epidemiologists) that we contracted this while transiting Narita. I for one, was in the transit area of that airport the same day that the Korean case (#5) was passing through there.

* Jason of kimchi-icecream got a little more information from the first blogger via email. The teacher has answered other questions on his site.

* One cause of concern with some commentors on my original post was that the teachers were permitted to hang out with each other, even though some may not have been infected yet. Looks like now they'll be isolated. Looks like now, too, anyone in contact with the potentially-infected teachers are being quarantined. That's how commentor Brian Dear got hooked.

* Here's an email that went out to EPIK teachers:

A friend of mine who works for EPIK got an email this afternoon saying:

"This is to let you know that ALL foreign teachers who enter the country after May 11, 2009 are required to do a home quarantine for 7 days before returning to school.

During the quarantine, you are required to stay home and wear a mask if leaving the house temporarily to run errands such as grocery shopping. At the end of the 7 day quarantine, you must visit a public health clinic for a final checkup."

* Rumor on the street is that CDI, a big chain of hagwon in Seoul, have closed for the week due to the threat of swine flu. Others have apparently closed as well, and teachers who attended a particular workshop in Yongin last Wednesday are being called in. [UPDATE: Here's some more information out of CDI, thanks to commentor Micromegas.

A new teacher came in for training at Chungdahm. Training doesn't happen at the school you're assigned to. Everyone who trains goes to the same place, a main office in Seoul.

Now, this new teacher apparently had swine flu. They didn't find out until after he started work at his CDI Branch.

When they found out, they decided to cancel all classes at all CDI locations. Until June 3rd. Meaning, I'm technically on vacation for over a week.

* Another thought that came up in the comments here is that the authorities might try and keep these bloggers isolated from the rest of the world, keep them off the internet. That would be a real shame because, after all, we wouldn't have heard hardly anything about this were it not for these bloggers.

* Is there some xenophobia shaping up? Another panic against foreign English teachers? Certainly swine flu is something to be worried about, but is this yet another reason we can't be trusted around children?