Regional cooperation helps open doors

One of the country's most notable cases involves a cluster infection detected in the middle of last month. To date, about 70 people have been infected in Seongnam, 18 kilometers south of Seoul, after church officials sprayed saltwater into the mouths of members attending Sunday services, according to the KCDC.

Linton said spraying saltwater into the mouth for disinfection is "very strange on a scientific level," adding that the media criticism the church received "will help bring other churches around".

He said strong public opinion is conducive to bringing the outbreak under control.

"Koreans complain and grumble. There is a lot of unhappiness and hysteria about the virus, but at the end of the day, they all come around ... They do what they have to do."

Wang, from Jilin University, said South Korea's monoethnicity has resulted in a strong sense of ethnic cohesion within the country.

"Even though there are criticisms among different political parties, and friction between religious groups and the government, when the whole country is in crisis, people tend to make the common benefit of the nation a priority," he said.

Linton said South Korea's approach can be replicated in other countries, especially its innovative testing methods.

According to the Yonhap news agency, a South Korean company has agreed to ship 20,000 novel coronavirus testing kits to Romania in a government-arranged deal.

South Korea is considering providing humanitarian support to Iran and has discussed ways to jointly counter the pandemic with countries such as the Netherlands. It is also working with the WHO on clinical research on the novel coronavirus.

Noting that countries such as South Korea, China and the United States have all been working on developing a COVID-19 vaccine, Kim, from the IVI, said the world can expect to see results from the vaccine research as early as the fourth quarter, but the process of regulatory review and approval still remains.