A traditional Korean arts and performance festival scheduled to run through Sept. 22 to 27 in Anseong, Gyeonggi has been scrapped and similar events in Seongnam and Hwaseong in the same province have also been either canceled or suspended on fears of the virus.
Another 199 cases of the new flu were confirmed yesterday by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bringing the total to 3,312. Two people have died from the disease.
Other municipal governments are considering similar cancellation plans despite the financial losses regional economies will incur.
Gwangju Mayor Park Kwang-tae told officials in a meeting yesterday that he doesn’t want to risk the lives of his city’s citizens even though axing major international events would cost the city a lot of money.
Just two days ago, Gwangju city officials said it cannot cancel or suspend upcoming international festivals because of financial commitments and effort spent organizing the programs. The city’s major festivals include World Photonics Expo 2009 Gwangju (Oct. 9 to Nov. 5), and Gwangju Design Biennale (Sept. 18 to Nov. 4), Gwangju Kimchi Cultural Festival 2009 (Oct. 23 to Nov.1). The city estimates 2 million Korean and overseas visitors from 50 countries would visit the photonics expo.
I suspect GFN, Gwangju's semi-English radio station would go out of business if it could no longer boast of the photonics expo and how it is the greatest hope for humanity and, more importantly, for Gwangju. The article goes on to say that some colleges have delayed the opening of the semester. Furthermore, some grade schools have also delayed the start of the new semester. From the Herald:
Due to growing concerns over the rapidly spreading H1N1 flu virus, some schools have decided to delay the start of the new semester, scheduled for yesterday, to prevent possible mass infections among students. They included three middle, 12 high schools and one international school that have reported a total of 38 confirmed infections as of Sunday.
Education officials delivered guidelines to schools that recommend students who recently returned from abroad stay at home for the incubation period of the disease. Schools have also been advised to postpone field trips and sports events.
The total number of people infected with the flu virus here reached 3,113 yesterday with additional 188 cases in the day alone.
4 comments:
Justin Kamen, founder of the group Students Prep America which believes school openings should be delayed until a swine flu vaccine is available will be my guest tomorrow, August 27 at 5 PM NY time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com.
Please go to my blog, http://www.garybaumgarten.com then to join in the conversation.
Thanks,
Gary
Doesn't delaying the beginning of the school semester seem like a bit of an over reaction. In a densely populated country of over 55 million people, 3 thousand infected and of that only 2 dead does not indicate any need for national panic. The REGULAR flu kills over 4000 people in Canada every year. Why is everyone treating this thing like Ebola? Am I missing something?
Awwww, really. It's a *flu*. It is not deadlier than any other flu, it's just more contagious and faster spreading.
Of course, if one washes their hands regularly with soap, covers their mouth when they cough and keeps all surfaces (like bathroom counters) clean and sanitized with proper cleansers ... oh, right, it's Korea.
Nevermind! They should cancel the school year altogether!
Good points, Lisa and Ms. Parker. Compared to the damage "regular" flu does, and indeed compared to other diseases that ravage the rest of the world, panicing over this is over the top.
Like the blogger "kimchi-icecream" has written, I wonder if there will be a revolution in workplace culture in Korea. That is, don't come to work sick, actually clean and sanitize things, wash hands, etc. . . . but for the time being it's a little amusing to read about all these extra measures when nobody washes their hands, everyone coughs on each other, and kids mop the classrooms with dirty mops from the bathroom. *sigh* Thank goodness it's summer vacation.
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