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The outbreak of swine flu among 14 participants in the World Choir Championship Korea (월드콰이어챔피언십) has forced the cancellation of the event halfway through. From the Joongang Ilbo:
The second half of the first international choir competition slated to be held for four days starting today at local cities in South Gyeongsang has been canceled after A(H1N1) influenza infected more than a dozen foreign competitors and a Korean volunteer worker participating in the contest.
The South Gyeongsang Provincial Government said on Saturday that the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 13 Indonesians and one Korean volunteer worker participating in World Choir Championship Korea 2009, have contracted the new virus.
Award and closing ceremonies for the first half that were scheduled on Saturday were also canceled.
The first half of the competition ran for four days from Wednesday.
The Korea Times says that 15 people from the event have the flu, and a Thai article says, according to a family member of one of the participants, that 34 others are sick. From The Straits Times:
Organisers on Sunday rushed to send home hundreds of foreign contestants.
'We feel really sorry that we had to cancel this great event. But it's inevitable for the sake of public health,' Mr Kang Mal Rim, an organiser of the South Kyeongsang Province government, told AFP.
Health authorities have quarantined the infected at state hospitals for treatment and conducted more tests on suspected others.
Interkultur, the organizers, have issued a statement on the messageboard; an excerpt:
There are 13 indonesian people infected with influenzia H1N1. We don't have the result for two more indonesians yet.
But these 13 (15) infected people are in the Medical Center in Masan in quarantine. According to the circumstances
they are doing well. There isn't a more difficult evidence, so it is to estimate that these singers can go home
in 4-7 days.
All choirs who were living with these infected people together in the same hotel are in quarantine, too,
but they get food and doctors care for them. They all have to stay in quarantine approximately until the 17th of July.
If non of them will be infected in the next days too, they are allowed to leave the country.
We and the representatives from the indonesian embassy are in a constantly contact with all the people in the quarantine.
For now we are not able to give any information about back-payments. It's the first time in the long
INTERKULTUR event history (over 90 events) that we had to cancel a competition.
We ask all affected people to have patience.
There are nine choirs from Indonesia quarantined, their names listed in another post. According to a Jakarta Post article:
[A choir group leader] said the 12 members most likely contracted the flu on their flight from Indonesia to South Korea aboard the Korean Airlines because their health condition before departure was normal.
Other members who took the Garuda Indonesia flight were not infected with the flu, she added.
However, the good news was the group won the gold medal in the contest, Lita said.
One group from South Africa was stranded in Dubai International Airport.
The group had been heading to South Korea to take part in the International Choir Championships in South Korea, but were informed that the event had been cancelled because of swine flu.
The choir were not able to leave the airport. The choir were unable to leave the airport as they did not hold entry visas into Dubai and all flights back to South Africa were fully booked.
"As we arrived in Dubai we were informed by the Korean government that no tourists are allowed to enter the country because there is a severe outbreak of swine flu. That is why we are stranded at the moment at Dubai Airport. We’ve been awake for about 36 hours and it is difficult to sleep here because there are no beds," explained choir conductor Andre Van der Merwe.
Seems like Interkultur didn't know what it was getting itself into, though, judging by a post made by one of the forum's moderators previous to the contest. One user wrote:
The Organising Committee must be very busy at this stage of preparation for 1st WCC. With their extensive experience I am sure the event will be well-run. However I hope they take a few minutes to reassure parents from all over who will be sending their children to participate in the championships.
Will there be any measures in place to minimize the spread of Flu? Obviously a lot depends on individual behaviour but it will help if organisers have certain measures in place.
To which the moderator answered:
Please don't worry!
At the airports in South Korea will be checks, which should prevent the spread of Influenza A H1N1.
Also is South Korea one of the countries the virus did't appear yet.
All the public buildings where the World Choir Championships will take place have sickrooms with healthcare professionals.
Of course the virus has appeared in South Korea prior to this competition, though perhaps the writer was thinking it didn't have any home-grown cases yet. Interestingly the original Joongang Ilbo article mentions:
[T]he KCDC confirmed for the first time on Friday that one woman, who had never gone abroad or had physical contact with a patient infected with the new influenza, was infected with the flu.
And there's one other thing that caught my attention. From the Joongang Ilbo article:
No symptoms of the virus were detected when they were being quarantined at a Gimhae International Airport on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I wonder if this means participants were held overnight for observation at the airport upon arrival. Regardless, authorities suspect this to be a busy flu season. From the Korea Times:
The authorities are worried about the possibility that large events over the summer holidays will turn into routes for possible mass transmission of the virus.
So far this month, 13 people have already been confirmed with the infection. All of them are suspected of having contracted the virus at events involving people who have been abroad.
Five members of a group of 45 Christians were confirmed with the virus after a trip to Thailand from June 17 to July 2. Two university students were confirmed after returning from a trip to the Philippines from June 24 to July 4.
In addition, another two patients were diagnosed with the disease after attending a large camp where 8,500 university students from more than four countries gathered for four days. The disease center assumes that all attendees may have been exposed to the virus.
12 comments:
Person from South Africa in article:
As we arrived in Dubai we were informed by the Korean government that no tourists are allowed to enter the country because there is a severe outbreak of swine flu.
This is exhibit A why I am highly skeptical of narratives of people describing the narratives of other people, especially when at least one is talking in a foreign language or listening to someone who is not speaking their mother tongue. And it often seems the more outraged the person is, the less reliable their interpretation becomes. Not always, but often.
Indeed. And related to the post about mud fest, and the guy writing that hundreds of people got sick at the mud festival, after spending time in-country it's easy for me to see that you have to be highly skeptical of the information coming out about Korea from outsiders.
Korea should be cancelling their international events. It is irresponsible to be bringing young people around the world here when they have a quarantine policy. That is two events ruined by this. Just cancel "international" events until further notice.
Those quarantined are those who are known to be infected or those who have been in close contact with those infected, and who else? (Keeping teachers returning from abroad out of the classroom for a week is not quarantine.)
Since that would not necessarily affect most people across the broad, wholesale canceling of all international events is probably not prudent at this point (though that could change).
There are dozens of "international events" — major or minor — going on at any one time, so I'm not so sure that the cancellation of two of them even in a short period indicates a need to cancel all of them.
But for PR's sake, South Korea should be ready to give the post-quarantine visitors a nice tour while they're put up in nice digs to offset the inconvenience of being held in one place while on vacation. And if the tourist no longer has time, give them a raincheck on such a trip.
OK - having actually been involved in the SA Youth Choir visit (I was due to meet them and escort them to their overnight stay in Seoul and then get them on the KTX next day) - they were not informed by Korean authorities, they got text messages from concerned parents who had seen the news in SA. THEY DECIDED to stay in Dubai rather than continue on and enter the country! And they decided that based on this fear of a 'country with swine flu!'
Interesting, Teacher Leo. Thanks for the inside information.
While I don't like the way the apparent facts get distorted then reported in the way I describe above, I do feel sympathy for the South Africans not wanting to risk it.
In the most recent UN report, there had been only 18 cases of H1N1 among South Africans, single digit percentage of Korea's 300+ (and growing) cases. Since they were going to a venue known to have hosted infected people, it might be prudent to turn around and go home.
Hey, does anybody know if the week long quarantine is still in effect for anybody without a lifetime supply of kimchi in their blood?
I'm a public school teacher, and my educational office hasn't asked us to stay in the country. Pretty much the entire 30 plus Native speakers in the district are leaving the country, we all have English camps the week after we get back, but with a 7 day quarantine we'll all be missing the first week.
What I don't understand is how the rest of the world can continue on as if nothing is happening. It's the swine flu, people! Wake up! It's not like the myriad other forms of flu that have also been killing a very small percentage of their victims forever. This one is worse: it lasts a whole day or two longer!
Korea's not overreacting based on some non-existent media-whipped frenzy of fear of the outside world. No; it's the enitre rest of the world that's underreacting.
All kidding aside, Korea really should do the decent thing and warn the few brave souls who for whatever misguided reason choose to travel here each year that they stand a very good chance of having their freedom taken away for a week or so upon arrival ... because of the frikkin' flu!
But then, I that would mean communicating current or future plans with foreigners; and as any low-quality Engrishee teacher can tell you, that's just not the Korean way. Much better to roust people at their hotels or apatos in the middle of the night and tell them they need to come for medical tests, so that they can be sure not to bring with them any of the things they might need for the next week.
Korea: where nothing else (but our own safety and convenience) matters.
Isak, the policy on "quarantine" seems to be school by school. Some are telling teachers to stay home for a week after returning, some aren't, and some (like my uni) are actually SENDING teachers abroad (in our case, to China) without quarantine rules for their return.
Score, thanks a bunch a ROK Hound.
On the one hand, I'm embarrassed I was so (ahem) unkind to Fortress Korea in this thread yesterday. But it's personal for me, as some folks I care about will be passing through in a couple of weeks. The idea of them being locked up for a week just because someone else on their 747 has the flu (while all of the Koreans on the flight run free) is a tad irritating.
On the other hand, I think ROK Hound and Isak might be confusing school policy (or "policies" -- as they've noted, it seems to vary among schools) with the much more severe (though not necessarily less arbitrary) iron hand of the Immigration authorities. Or maybe I just didn't understand their comments.
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