With more than five hundred infections in late February 2020, South Korea is becoming the most infected country next to China. The nov...
With more than five hundred infections in late February 2020, South Korea is becoming the most infected country next to China.
The novel coronavirus disease, dubbed Covid-19 by the World Health Organization, has sickened more than 75,000 people. More than 2,000 have died. COVID-19 virus is a new type of viral pneumonia that is similar to SARS which is part of Corona virus family. Being aware about the virus helps you to prevent it.
Here are 10 facts about COVID-19 for Filipinos in Korea:
1. The recent spike of infections in Korea doesn't mean they were infected yesterday or today. These people were already infected way back early February 2020. They were only discovered when they tracked the source who is a 61 year old woman living in Daegu who is part of a church.
2. The simplest way to identify a symptom is if a person has dry cough without a runny nose.
3. The size of the virus is very large with a cell diameter of 400-500 nm. Ordinary masks can filter the virus in normal circumstances. N95 masks are recommend for those highly contagious areas.
4. The virus can stay active for 6-12 hours in clothes and can stay active on a metal surface for half a day. Laundry detergents can kill the virus. If you don't have time to wash clothes everyday, exposing the clothes under the sun may kill the virus as well.
5. The virus can live in the hands for only 5-10 minutes. Wash your hands often. The common way of getting infected is touching things openly. We often rub our eyes and touch many things. Incidents happen in just few minutes.
6. The Corona viruses are not heat resistant and dies at the temperature of 26-27 degrees Celsius. "Corona viruses have seasonality" says an expert, but we may yet to know until summer comes.
7. Drinking warm water and gargling may minimize chances of the virus infecting your throat, but you need serious medications if it infected your lungs.
8. Process of being infected: You will have a dry sore throat feeling that lasts for 3-4 days. The virus then mixes in the nasal fluid, flows into the trachea, into the lungs causing pneumonia. This process takes 5-6 days.
9. The pneumonia of COVID-19 differs from others. If you a cold and have this feeling you were like drowning, that might be the sign that you may be infected.
10. If you feel the symptoms, you may need to call KCDC hotline 1339 right away. South Korean government offers free testing and medication for COVID-19 cases
The Philippine Embassy in Korea is ready to assist any Filipino in distress through our Assistance to Nationals (ATN) hotline at 010-9263-8119.
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