Page 27 - 2020 Defence White Paper

Uzbekistan, and more. In the meeting, the participants shared their respective military medical systems
and status of the outbreak and response regarding COVID-19 and sought ways to cooperate in the
future.

2. Fight Against the Inflow and Spread of Infections in the Military

| Preventive Isolation and Active Diagnostic Tests | Since the military is vulnerable to infectious
diseases due to its group-oriented environment and the spread of infections directly affects the military’s
combat power, the ROK Armed Forces applied further intensified standards of "preventive isolation"
compared to the standards of health authorities and minimized the inflow and spread of the pandemic
through active diagnostic tests.
1)
According to the MND’s "Guidelines for COVID-19 Related Isolation and PCR Tests for
Servicemembers", any person who has come into secondary contact with and who has been in the
same place as coronavirus patients have been added to those who are subject to preventive isolation.
As for those who are subject to preventive isolation, each person is, by default, required to stay in an
isolated space away from others; if there is a shortage of isolation facilities, groups of patients are
separated through cohort isolation. 2)

<Self-Isolation Standards for COVID-19>

Isolation Standards of the Health Authorities Self-Preventive Isolation Standards of the MND
˝ A person who has tested positive for COVID-19 ˝ Self-quarantine standards of the health authorities
˞ A person who has come into contact with coronavirus ˞ A person who has come into secondary contact with
patients coronavirus patients
˟ A patient suspected to have the coronavirus ˟ A person who has been in the same place as coronavirus
ˠ A person with symptoms awaiting to receive a test patients
ˡ A person who has arrived in the ROK less than 14 days ˠ Among those with symptoms but have tested negative for
ago from abroad COVID-19, any person who has been instructed to go into
self-isolation by the health authorities or deemed to be
required to go into self-isolation at the discretion of the
medical staff
ˡ A person who has come into contact with anyone who had
arrived in the ROK less than 14 days ago from abroad

To preemptively prevent the inflow and spread of infectious disease, the ROK Armed Forces widely
conducted PCR tests. In addition to those subject to isolation under the standards of health authorities,

1) A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is a test method employed to collect RNA from swab samples such as saliva or
phlegm of a patient suspected to have the coronavirus. It determines positive infection if a certain percentage of it
matches the RNA of a coronavirus patient.
2) Measures against pandemics enforced by locking down a certain group or building as a whole to prevent the inflow or
spread of infectious diseases.

Appendix