(Photo Credit: 123RF)
South Korea is reported to have approximately 9,137 confirmed cases of Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) and over a hundred death tolls as of March 25th, 2019. Especially, people with disabilities are facing new obstacles due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The media usually covers news about the virus without regard to the disabled community, which hinders them from being fully informed. Most of these people feel neglected from society even more at this point in time.
During the beginning of the outbreak, the outrage toward a lack of service provided to the disabled communities grew out. Despite the required self-quarantine seeming easy for the majority of people, people with physical disabilities need caregivers. Amidst the constant rise of COVID-19 confirmed cases, the South Korean government began to grapple with the annoying inconvenience experienced by the disabled community. On March 16th, the government decided to provide an emergency service mainly for the elders and disability whose original care services have been cut off; however, the vulnerable are not entirely satisfied by the support. The South Korean disability news site, Be Minor, reported the perspective of disabled people toward the service. “It would not matter if I am infected by this contagious disease. But I feel very guilty by the fact that I could infect my caregivers,” a concerned anonymous individual posted.
On March 11th, the World Health Organization declared the disease as a pandemic. COVID-19 is indiscriminately spreading throughout the world. People have been asked to wash their hands and have enough household items during a quarantine. Many people are dealing with this outbreak without too much inconvenience, but for the disabled communities, they heavily rely on assistance from the caretakers. Not only the government but also all citizens are required to think one step further toward people with disabilities by supporting them.
Written by Sooyoun Kim | Staff Writer
留言