Diplomats emphasized that each country has its own medical and administrative system and that one model of containing the outbreak cannot necessarily be translated to another country.

Still, they added, it has been helpful to share examples from Korea to assess what has worked and not worked.

“The Czech Embassy in Seoul has been asked by the Czech Ministry of Health and other Czech institutions, including private initiatives, to acquire detailed information on some specific procedures that were proven very effective in fighting the virus in the Republic of Korea, such as the drive-through testing stations, the Self-Quarantine Safety Protection application, or methodology for releasing patients,” Gustav Slamecka, ambassador of the Czech Republic to Korea, told the Korea JoongAng Daily last week.

“A lot of information is also publicly available as the Korean government puts emphasis on transparency and openness,” he added. “The EU embassies approach the Korean authorities collectively, which saves their time as well. The EU Delegation has shown very good leadership and capabilities in information gathering and sharing.”

As more countries are closing their borders to foreigners in attempts to contain the outbreak, some have sought ways to keep them open in midst of containment efforts.

“The Czech Government has excluded [South] Korea from its list of risk countries last week and canceled a decision to ban flights with passengers from [South] Korea,” Slamecka said. “We hope that direct flights will resume as soon as the state of emergency in the Czech Republic is over.”

The whole text can be found on the Joongang Daily webpage.