The whole world witnessed history in the year 2020 in the form of the Corona pandemic. While the origin was China, one of the first nations to get affected was South Korea. Needless to mention, this country fared well in handling the pandemic with the right measures like social distancing, aiding the government to follow the protocols, etc.
How South Korea mitigated the CoVID-19 attack?
The key factor that helped the Korean government in fighting the pandemic was the way the population trusted the government with the personal data to track down their movement details. As a result, the government was able to create a real-time database alerting the population of the affected areas and urging them to avoid those places. The people abided by the regulations and the country then successfully progressed in this situation.
Apart from the above method, the regular methods of mass testing, good quarantine facilities, practicing all the regulations like social distancing, mask & personal sanitization, being voluntarily locked inside the home, etc. have also helped in combating this deadly disease. While all the major activities and businesses came to a standstill, the sports arena faced the brunt as well.
Korean Sports in the backdrop of the Pandemic
During the ongoing pandemic, the Korean Professional football league was one of the first professional leagues in the world to resume even before its European or US counterparts. As a result, not only the domestic broadcasters like KBS ,사설토토, etc. profited profusely on the broadcasting contracts but also the international giants like BBC, Sportdigital Fussball, etc.
It happened because coaches never stopped training even during the pandemic despite the lockdown measures. In order to curb down the pangs of the pandemic, the government had practically shut down the entire public places like schools, colleges, training centers, etc. Since most of these educational institutions already have their own training grounds, therefore unlimited access was available from all of these closed institutions.
The opportunity was used by many coaches and players when they rented out such unoccupied training areas and started training for themselves. This activity helped to garner a win-win situation:
- The in-house coaches of these institutions did not run out of jobs, unlike the other teachers who could continue with their online courses.
- The players did not run out of their forms resulting in a quick bounce when the league season started.
As mentioned earlier, South Korea was one of those first countries to start professional league matches. It happened because of the aforementioned tactics employed by the coaches, which were duly backed by the government. Needless to mention, the government also had played a huge role in this situation.
It ensured that any of these coaching sites are never crowded to keep the pandemic situation in control. Apart from controlling crowds and maintaining social distancing protocols, the government ensured that those coaching areas are cleaned and sanitized properly to stop the spread of the deadly virus.