South Korea's conscripted doctors feel like 'human shields' in virus battle

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As the coronavirus pandemic began sweeping through South Korea late in February, doctor Nam Ha-jong received an order to report overnight to Daegu, a city that was to become the epicentre of infections.

Nam Ha-jong, a public health doctor serving a 36-month duty after medical school as part of the country's conscription instead of regular military service, works at a coronavirus testing clinic in Okcheon, South Korea, October 18, 2020. Picture taken October 18, 2020. REUTERS/Ju-min Park

“We were exhausted, scared, and felt like being thrown in as a shield to fight against an enemy that no one knew about,” said Nam, who spent three weeks working in Daegu, a city of about 2.4 million southeast of the capital, Seoul. That is compulsory in South Korea, which is technically still at war with the North, since the neighbours ended the Korean War with only a truce, instead of a peace treaty.

Refusing to serve would have brought punishment in the form of a service extension of five times the length of the hotspot deployment, which typically lasts several weeks. However, he added, “The general public don’t usually appreciate their work, because they think of their service as something obvious.”

Now, with dozens of new virus cases each day, the junior doctors, who receive average monthly pay of 2.5 million won , are the mainstay of about half the nearly 600 test centres nationwide.

 

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