South Korea’s fast response to coronavirus disease: implications on public policy and public management theory

ABSTRACT

The first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in South Korea was identified on 20 January 2020. South Korea’s blended response of quick action and technological innovations has proven effective in containing the COVID-19 outbreak and can offer lessons for other countries. This paper presents a review of the administrative and legal measures taken by the Korean government, a discussion on the lessons learned from previous epidemics and disasters, and an overview of the government’s agile testing and containment strategies. The paper ends with a discussion on the implications of Korea’s responses to public policy and public management theory.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• coronavirus disease
• disaster management
• health and quarantine measures
• Korea

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pan Suk Kim

Pan Suk Kim is a public administration professor in the Department of Global Public Administration at the College of Government and Business, Yonsei University, Mirae Campus, Wonju and was the Minister of Personnel Management in the government of the Republic of Korea.