koreaherald.com (11.03.2020) The National Health Insurance Service said the lower 20 percent of the income bracket will receive about 30 to 50 percent reduction in premiums from March through May. For the worst-affected Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province’s Gyeongsan, Cheongdo and Bonghwa, the bottom half of income earners will be given the partial premium waivers. The lowered payments are a part of Korea’s disaster relief subsidy plan announced March 30 to cushion financial blow from the outbreak for the financially vulnerable.

wwwnc.cdc.gov (17.09.2020) The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) classified the severity of COVID-19 into very severe, severe, mild, and asymptomatic (15) (Appendix Table 1). Mild COVID-19 is defined as alert and meeting >1 of the following conditions: <50 years old, >1 underlying conditions, and temperature <38°C with antipyretic drugs. Asymptomatic is defined as a patient who is alert, <50 years old, has no underlying disease, is a nonsmoker, and has a temperature of <37.5°C without antipyretic drugs.

sciencedirect.com (05.05.2020) One of the most effective ways that the Korean government rapidly dispersed these daily updates is emergency SMS messages. All citizens receive daily alert messages through their mobile phones from their local authorities. The alert message arrives with a 40–60 db alarm sound, and contains information from KCDC about newly confirmed patients and their recent trajectories if available.

oecd.org (16.04.2020) Provision of a subsidy to individuals who need to be isolated (both self-isolation and hospitalisation) to support their living costs and penalises those who are suspected to be infected if they refuse to receive diagnostic test or subsequent treatment or go through self-isolation.

oecd.org and mhis.or.kr (02.02.2020) Korea provides tests and subsequent treatment free of charge to patients and the cost is covered by central and local governments and the health insurance public corporation (the National Health Insurance covers 80% and the central government the remaining 20%).

pension.gov.sa (03.09.2020) The Public Pension Agency has implemented training programs for its employees during remote working so as to better cater their customers during the confinement period.

pension.gov.sa (03.09.2020) Entension of entitlements period of 3 months for beneficiaries who were to suspend their entitlements.

Public Pension Agency (28.04.2020) The call center is fully prepared and staffed (remotely) throughout the month of Ramadan to receive all incoming calls, and to deal with them as determined by the nature of the required service throughout the week from Sunday to Thursday from ten in the morning until four in the evening, and from nine in the evening until one in the morning, and on Friday from one in the evening until five in the evening and from nine in the evening until one in the morning.

Luego que esta tarde la Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados aprobara el proyecto de reforma constitucional que permite retirar el 10% de los fondos de pensiones de las cuentas de capitalización individual obligatoria, la Superintendencia de Pensiones (SP) emitió dos oficios con instrucciones con el procedimiento, los plazos y los resguardos que las administradoras de fondos de pensiones (AFP) deberán adoptar para garantizar la correcta aplicación de la nueva ley. Los regulados tienen hasta el próximo martes 28 de julio para entregar sus comentarios.

Reuters (14.09.2020) A collective failure by political leaders to heed warnings and prepare for an infectious disease pandemic has transformed “a world at risk” to a “world in disorder”, according to a report on international epidemic preparedness.