Korea shuts down Covid-19 alert in transition to 'routine management' system
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said it would keep an eye on diseases through routine surveillance, even without a formal alert or a dedicated response team.
A person undergoes a Covid-19 test at a screening site in Yongsan District, central Seoul, in August 2025.YONHAP
Korea is lifting its Covid-19 crisis alert after more than six years and closing the central response team it has run since the 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak, ending two long public health emergencies.
The changes, reported during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, do not mean the country is dropping its guard. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said it would keep watch on Covid-19, MERS and other diseases through routine surveillance, even without a formal alert or a dedicated response team, and would switch a response system back on if needed.
The shift is one from emergency footing to everyday management, the agency said.
"It means moving from a long-running emergency response system to routine management," a KDCA official said.
The Covid-19 alert was first issued at its lowest level on Jan. 3, 2020, before the country's first case, and climbed as the pandemic spread. It fell over the years as the country moved through the Daegu and North Gyeongsang outbreak, social distancing, mass vaccination and the end of the indoor mask mandate. Now, the last remaining level is being removed, effectively taking the virus out of the alert system.
The MERS response is being wound down as well. The country's first case appeared on May 20, 2015, and set off a hospital-centered outbreak that infected 186 people and killed 38. Authorities have run a central MERS response team ever since to track cases at home and abroad. Counting from that first case, the team is closing after 4,067 days. Measured from September 2018, when it was reactivated following an imported case, the duration comes to 2,846.
Lim Seung-kwan, head of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, delivers opening remarks at the 7th Global Vaccine Forum held at Seoul Peace & Park Convention in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on June 25.NEWS1
Closing the team does not end surveillance. The KDCA says it will keep managing both Covid-19 and MERS through sentinel surveillance, overseas outbreak monitoring and hospital reporting.
The agency used the same briefing to report on a run of infectious disease threats abroad.
Nipah virus infections broke out in India and Bangladesh in January, and in May, a cluster of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome cases hit a cruise ship in the Atlantic. On May 17, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the spread of Ebola in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern. France reported its first case on June 24, with a doctor who fell ill after aid work in Congo later recovering.
The KDCA issued a low-level Ebola alert soon after the WHO declaration and has been running a response team. It has met with Seoul's Ministry of Justice and other agencies to discuss measures to keep the disease out of the country and protect Koreans abroad, and has stepped up cooperation through talks between the agency and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vials of Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are seen during a trial run of a mass vaccination center located inside a gym in the town of Ricany near Prague on Feb. 25, 2021.REUTERS/YONHAP
The KDCA has designated five African countries as priority quarantine zones: Congo, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Rwanda. The agency has tightened screenings of arrivals and is reviewing how central and local governments, hospitals and testing labs would respond if Ebola reached Korea.
Over the longer term, the agency said it plans to upgrade its system for handling disease emergencies.
The KDCA would sort outbreaks into two categories: those that can be stamped out at home, and pandemic-type diseases the country must learn to live with. For each, it would draw up separate strategies covering quarantine and social measures, medical care, vaccination and research. Other plans include designating regional infectious disease centers, speeding the development of vaccines and treatments and setting up a center for infectious disease clinical research.
Commissioner Lim Seung-kwan urged other ministries to pitch in.
"Keeping diseases that are spreading abroad from entering the country and spreading in our communities depends on protecting Koreans overseas through our diplomatic missions and on working with the Ministry of Justice and other agencies," Lim said. "Upgrading the disease crisis management system takes steady investment and preparation even in normal times, and I ask relevant ministries for active cooperation in carrying it out."
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
