koreaherald.com (11.04.2020) Foreign subscribers of South Korea’s national health insurance are eligible for premium assistance in a COVID-19 bailout, the state health care service said Saturday. From July 16, 2019, foreign residents staying over six months are required to enroll in the national health insurance plan. Previously, the subscription was optional for those staying longer than three months. As of last year, the number of foreign subscribers to the national health insurance plan reached 1,212,475.

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.