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. 2022 Apr;16(2):464-467.
doi: 10.1017/dmp.2020.374. Epub 2020 Oct 12.

Self-Quarantine Noncompliance During the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea

Sukhyun Ryu  1 , Youngsik Hwang  1 , Hongbi Yoon  1 , Byung Chul Chun  2
Affiliations

Self-Quarantine Noncompliance During the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea

Sukhyun Ryu et al. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Objectives: In South Korea, many individuals were self-quarantined for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after the quarantine criteria were extended to all overseas travelers. This study was conducted to identify the noncompliance rate of self-quarantine for COVID-19 cases and assess the impact of a 1-strike out policy and an increased amount of penalty for the violating self-quarantine in South Korea.

Methods: The self-quarantine noncompliance rate for COVID-19 was examined using publicly available data. We collected the daily number of quarantine and quarantine violation cases from March 22 to June 10, 2020. A Poisson regression analysis was conducted to identify the impact of additional sanctions for the quarantine violation.

Results: The median number of individuals quarantined per day was 36,561 (interquartile range, 34,408-41,961). The median number of daily self-quarantine violations was 6 (range, 0-13). The median rate of self-quarantine violations was 1.6 per 10,000 self-quarantined individuals (range, 0.0-8.0 per 10,000 self-quarantined individuals). The additional sanction has no significant impact on the number of violations among quarantine individuals (P = 0.99).

Conclusions: The additional sanction for the violation of quarantined individuals did not reduce the self-quarantine violations. Further studies are warranted to strengthen the compliance of self-quarantine for future pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; Korea; compliance; coronavirus; quarantine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The Number of Individuals Quarantining and Individuals Who Have Violated Quarantine in South Korea Between March 22 and June 10, 2020. The vertical dashed line in red indicates the implementation of a 1-strike out policy and an increased penalty for the violation of individuals from self-quarantine. (A) The daily number of quarantined individuals as determined by contact tracing of locals and international travelers. (B) The daily number of violators. (C) The daily noncompliance rate of those in self-quarantine.
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