COVID-19 Level 2.5 in Busan

On Monday morning of this week, a teacher leaned over and showed me the COVID-19 statistics and guessed that the government would soon make an announcement that further restricted social interaction in Korea.

Later that day, I got a text message from my gym which I put through Google Translate:  "We are pleased to inform you that the operation of the gym will be suspended for two weeks..." I'm sure the tone of the message is a little different in Korean, but I got the point. The city government of Busan had strengthened social distancing restrictions to level 2.5 (the second-highest level) for the next two weeks.

Shortly after I received the message from my gym, there was a flurry of activity in the teachers' office. People were buzzing around, announcements were made, lamentations were sighed, and I sat in confusion waiting for someone to explain what it all meant.

To help stop the spread of COVID-19, teachers were to work from home on a rotational basis. This week, grade 2 students were at school and needed to complete their one-on-one speaking tests with me on Wednesday and Thursday. So, I reported to school on Wednesday and Thursday but worked from home on Tuesday and Friday. 

The Grade 2 students did well on their speaking test. They had to explain in English the process of making or doing something. Most students explained how to make their favourite item of food. In all honestly, I was pretty tired of hearing about how to make ramen after listening to those instructions at least 40 times. I'll include a photo of the grading criteria here. You'll notice that students are graded on context and fluency, 50 points each, and the lowest possible score is 60/100. I'm just glad we were able to complete the test after several delays due to schedule changes, and I hope this isn't the last time I see my students in-person before the end of the year.

After the test, I worked from home, which is usually great, but these days there are several downsides. First, with the new restriction level, there isn't much to do outside of my home except take-out coffee and grocery shopping. Second, it is absolutely freezing in Busan. Negative 3 degrees and feels like -10 with the windchill. My apartment building has poor insulation, and the floor heating is expensive to run and doesn't do much against this level of cold. I spent much of my working from home days under my blankets. At least at school, the faculty office is heated.

Cases continue to rise and there are reports from Seoul that hospitals are overwhelmed and there is a long wait for patients needing treatment. A patient died from COVID-19 in Seoul while waiting for treatment.

While countries like Canada and America have begun to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to some frontline health workers and political leaders, South Korea seems to be lagging behind in this area. Projections have the vaccine arriving in Korea sometime around March, as they have made various deals with vaccine-makers for large quantities of the vaccine.

Much of my remaining teaching schedule is online until the end of the year. I wonder if the few in-person classes still on the schedule will be switched to the online format. I'll probably be told at the last minute. I'm also scheduled for a 3 half-day winter English camp with both of my schools. As of now, these camps are set to be in-person, but I expect they'll get switched to an online format like my summer English camp in August. I sincerely hope that, unlike my summer English camps, that I'll be informed of the switch more than one day in advance.

The current number of cases and the social distancing restrictions are similar to when I first arrived in Korea back in February. However, now, there seems to be a better understanding of the virus so we know precisely how serious it is, without wild speculation. That, plus that fact that we were able to reduce the numbers in the spring gives me hope that we can reduce the COVID-19 cases again this winter. We shall see.