As of July 3, 2023, South Korea has confirmed a total of 32,256,154 cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) within the country, including 35,071 deaths. South Korea's handling of the coronavirus (COVID-19) was initially widely praised, though the government's handling of vaccine distribution has been criticized. After the first wave lasted till April, Seoul and the metropolitan areas were hit hard by a few group infections during the second wave in August 2020. This was followed by a fourth wave, driven by the delta variant and low vaccination rates, leading to rising figures. Though the country has since achieved high vaccination rates, the omicron variant led to record new daily cases in 2022.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, saw infection cases spread throughout the Asia-Pacific region. By April 13, 2024, India had faced over 45 million coronavirus cases. South Korea followed behind India as having had the second highest number of coronavirus cases in the Asia-Pacific region, with about 34.6 million cases. At the same time, Japan had almost 34 million cases. At the beginning of the outbreak, people in South Korea had been optimistic and predicted that the number of cases would start to stabilize. What is SARS CoV 2?Novel coronavirus, officially known as SARS CoV 2, is a disease which causes respiratory problems which can lead to difficulty breathing and pneumonia. The illness is similar to that of SARS which spread throughout China in 2003. After the outbreak of the coronavirus, various businesses and shops closed to prevent further spread of the disease. Impacts from flight cancellations and travel plans were felt across the Asia-Pacific region. Many people expressed feelings of anxiety as to how the virus would progress. Impact throughout Asia-PacificThe Coronavirus and its variants have affected the Asia-Pacific region in various ways. Out of all Asia-Pacific countries, India was highly affected by the pandemic and experienced more than 50 thousand deaths. However, the country also saw the highest number of recoveries within the APAC region, followed by South Korea and Japan.

ObjectiveComparative evidence suggests that the impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy has been relatively milder in South Korea. This study aims to examine whether the pandemic has universal or unequal impacts on life expectancy across 250 districts with varying levels of deprivation.MethodsUsing mortality data from 2012 to 2021 obtained from the Microdata Integrated Service of Statistics Korea, we calculated life expectancy at birth and age 65 for both sexes, by deprivation quintiles, before and during the pandemic. We summarized life expectancy gaps using the slope of the inequality index (SII) and further decomposed the gaps by the contribution of age and cause of death using Arriaga’s method.ResultsBoth men and women experienced consistent improvements in life expectancy from 2012 to 2019, but the trend was disrupted during 2020 and 2021, primarily driven by older people. While men in more deprived areas were initially hit harder by the pandemic, the life expectancy gap across deprivation quintiles remained relatively constant and persistent across the study period [SII: -2.48 (CI: −2.70 from −2.27) for 2019 and − 2.84 (CI: −3.06 from −2.63) for 2020]. Middle-aged men from the most deprived areas were the most significant contributors to the life expectancy gap, with liver disease, liver cancer, transport accidents, and intentional injuries being the leading causes, both in the pre and during the pandemic. While these contributors remained largely similar before and during the pandemic, the contribution of transport accidents and liver cancer to the male life expectancy gap slightly decreased during the pandemic, while that of ischemic heart disease and pneumonia slightly increased. A similar increase was also observed for the female life expectancy gap.ConclusionThis study found no clear evidence of an increased life expectancy gap during the pandemic in South Korea, unlike in other countries, although access to emergency healthcare services may have been slightly more disturbed in deprived areas. This achievement can provide lessons for other countries. However, the persistent regional gaps in life expectancy observed over the past decade indicate the need for more targeted public health policies to address this issue.

Based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in 210 countries relative to their population, Peru had the most losses to COVID-19 up until July 13, 2022. As of the same date, the virus had infected over 557.8 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totaled more than 6.3 million. Note, however, that COVID-19 test rates can vary per country. Additionally, big differences show up between countries when combining the number of deaths against confirmed COVID-19 cases. The source seemingly does not differentiate between "the Wuhan strain" (2019-nCOV) of COVID-19, "the Kent mutation" (B.1.1.7) that appeared in the UK in late 2020, the 2021 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) from India or the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) from South Africa.

The difficulties of death figures

This table aims to provide a complete picture on the topic, but it very much relies on data that has become more difficult to compare. As the coronavirus pandemic developed across the world, countries already used different methods to count fatalities, and they sometimes changed them during the course of the pandemic. On April 16, for example, the Chinese city of Wuhan added a 50 percent increase in their death figures to account for community deaths. These deaths occurred outside of hospitals and went unaccounted for so far. The state of New York did something similar two days before, revising their figures with 3,700 new deaths as they started to include “assumed” coronavirus victims. The United Kingdom started counting deaths in care homes and private households on April 29, adjusting their number with about 5,000 new deaths (which were corrected lowered again by the same amount on August 18). This makes an already difficult comparison even more difficult. Belgium, for example, counts suspected coronavirus deaths in their figures, whereas other countries have not done that (yet). This means two things. First, it could have a big impact on both current as well as future figures. On April 16 already, UK health experts stated that if their numbers were corrected for community deaths like in Wuhan, the UK number would change from 205 to “above 300”. This is exactly what happened two weeks later. Second, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which countries already have “revised” numbers (like Belgium, Wuhan or New York) and which ones do not. One work-around could be to look at (freely accessible) timelines that track the reported daily increase of deaths in certain countries. Several of these are available on our platform, such as for Belgium, Italy and Sweden. A sudden large increase might be an indicator that the domestic sources changed their methodology.

Where are these numbers coming from?

The numbers shown here were collected by Johns Hopkins University, a source that manually checks the data with domestic health authorities. For the majority of countries, this is from national authorities. In some cases, like China, the United States, Canada or Australia, city reports or other various state authorities were consulted. In this statistic, these separately reported numbers were put together. For more information or other freely accessible content, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

According to a survey conducted in South Korea in 2020, approximately **** percent of companies in the finance and insurance as well as arts, sports, and recreation related industries supported working from home in reaction to the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in South Korea. The share of companies allowing working from home was high in the industries in which remote work was possible, such as finance and insurance, education, and telecommunications. Over ** percent of large companies in South Korea implemented or were planning to support working from home to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

 Change spurred by the pandemic

Survey results showed that Korean employees were calling for more flexibility in their working conditions for at least a few years. The unprecedented circumstances brought about by COVID-19 have forced the hand of companies into allowing remote work to protect both their employees and their business. Company dinners, widely considered an integral yet stress-inducing facet of company life in South Korea, were largely reduced as part of various policy changes enacted by companies during the pandemic.

 Economic hardships 

Gig workers have been hit hard by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many having lost their jobs, and in turn their primary source of income. Even employees that were able to keep their job have resorted to other means to make up for their decreased income. With the global economy dipping downwards, the role of governments and policy makers will be more important than ever.

In 2024, around ***** million movie tickets were sold in South Korea, a significant recovery from the record low of **** million movie tickets sold in 2020. The box office revenue has also shown signs of recovery, with about *** trillion South Korean won in revenue. However, in both cases there was a decrease compared to the previous year.A year of big hitsWhile 2019 had been a great year for South Korean cinema and movie theaters, with the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the industry was hit hard. Recovery began in 2021, and the industry continues to be centered mainly around big blockbuster movies. The biggest movie of the year was "Exhuma", a horror movie with mystery and occult elements. The most viewed foreign production was the Disney movie "Inside Out 2". American productions accounted for around ** percent of the box office revenue that year, while domestic moves contributed about half of the total revenue. As of June 2024, "Extreme Job" was the highest-grossing domestic movie ever to be shown in South Korea, while "Avatar: The Way of Water" was the highest-grossing foreign movie. Cinemas and COVID-19After the huge success in 2019, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) slowed ticket sales immensely. While the ticket sales revenue in January 2020 stood at around ***** billion won, one year later the sales revenue was only at **** billion won. By December 2023 this had risen to ***** billion won, exceeding the January 2020 figure. The number of visitors went down from **** million to just *** million respectively, before recovering to around **** million in December of 2023. While regular cinemas were struggling, consumers found other ways to watch movies, for example by visiting drive-in cinemas or using online streaming services.

In 2023, there was an around 13 percent increase in music albums exported from South Korea. While entertainment industries worldwide were hit hard by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the K-pop industry, the overseas album sector actually saw a major jump of over 100 percent in 2020. International streaming also increased, with overseas performances being the most negatively affected sector, though it has since recovered. Between 2018 and 2023, album exports saw an average growth rate of approximately 35 percent.