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A couple of days ago, Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, began to smoke. The reason: hundreds of South Koreans would be fleeing to China due to the outbreak of coronavirus in their country . Specifically, to the city of Qingdao, 90 minutes by plane from Seoul. Users began asking the Chinese authorities to cancel all flights and not let their Asian neighbors in.

The controversy was triggered by the fact that flights from South Korea to China began to run out. And the price of tickets skyrocketed, reaching figures not seen since the World Cup in Korea and Japan in 2002. For example, a week ago, a one-way flight from Seoul to Beijing cost 120 euros. Now, none is found below 340 euros. If there are seats, because almost all planes are complete.

But Weibo users were wrong. It is not the South Koreans who are fleeing massively from their country, but the Chinese themselves residing in South Korea . The sanitary alarm by Covid-19 is the backdrop. But, in both cases, the most surprising thing is that, a priori, it makes no sense. In South Korea, today, cases of contagion have just exceeded 2,000. And, in the Asian giant, they are already approaching 80,000. Who would want to flee to a country with a much greater alert? In addition, despite all the efforts of the Chinese government, the second world power is still unable to recover normalcy in its cities after the end of December began to spread the coronavirus from Wuhan.

"It is true that the situation has nothing to do with it, but at least my country has it under control thanks to strong measures and quarantines. They have sacrificed the economy to save the people, " defends Li Ho, who is from Chengdé, a city northeast of Beijing. We found it in Terminal 2 of the Incheon International Airport. Today, due to the epidemic, much more empty than usual. Three other Chinese men who work in a telecommunications company in Seoul also travel with him.

"Watch the latest data, now is when the rest of the world begins to know what the coronavirus. Instead, we and we are going to recover , " says another boy, Huang Li. It refers to the downward trend in China. Today, for example, 329 new infected have been registered compared to 433 on Wednesday. In total they already go for 78,960 and more than 2,790 deaths. But the good news is that the number of cured is much higher: 36,200.

From Beijing they say they are confident that they will have the coronavirus controlled in April . "We said that the outbreak would reach its climax in mid-February, and, since day 15, infections have been reduced. We are confident that in April the situation is already under control," said Dr. Zhong Nanshan, chief, yesterday. from the team of medical experts of the National Health Commission of China.

On the other hand, those fleeing from South Korea, hide in the evolution of cases in the last month in that country to measure the danger of contagion. On February 1 there were only 15 infected people. Now they have just exceeded 2,000, although 80% is concentrated in the city of Daegu and its surroundings, 230 kilometers from the capital, Seoul. A city from which many of its 2.4 million inhabitants have left these days for fear of becoming the Wuhan of South Korea , as there are rumors that the government, at any time, can close and isolate Daegu In addition, yesterday, for the first time, the number of infected new in South Korea (505) exceeded that of China.

"It took Wuhan a few weeks to realize the severity of the epidemic. Fortunately, the scale of the health system in China is huge: the country was able to mobilize hundreds of teams and a total of more than 40,000 doctors and nurses to help In Wuhan, only two professional hospitals were built and more than 10 temporary care centers were adapted, "the Chinese newspaper Huanqiu explained in an editorial. " If a situation like that of Wuhan is reproduced in another country in the world it is difficult to imagine that such large-scale assistance can be mobilized , and the situation can deteriorate very quickly."

Alerts on the phone do not stop arriving. "It is located near an infected area of ​​Covd-19," says the message that comes thanks to the Ministry of Health application that government officials forced us to unload as soon as we landed in Seoul earlier this week. The goal is to have every person who comes from China monitored. And, in case anyone has symptoms, all you have to do is get into the application and give the square of fever, cough, sore throat or dyspnea . You will be called right away to know your location and go to the rescue.

Upon returning to the airport, alerts also notify the number of new cases of contagion and risk areas. Before going to the boarding gate, keeping an eye on the local press, it is said that a group of K-pop superstars have canceled their concerts in Seoul for fear of the outbreak . There are also articles that explain how more and more countries are prohibiting the entry of South Korean citizens into their territory. Kim Gunn, vice minister of political affairs, has used a concise expression these days to define the isolation his country is suffering: "It is the new phobia of Korea."

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