General Society: Society: News: Hankyoreh

The Corona 19 virus attacked members of society indiscriminately, but it was more severe for some. For the quarantine ward nurse who treats corona 19 confirmed patients and patients, last year was a year when both body and mind collapsed. The virus also weighed heavily on the shoulders of workers whose workloads exploded in the’non-face-to-face era’, such as courier drivers and government call center counselors. For students with intellectual disabilities who require face-to-face education and their parents, the home was a “breathing prison”. The migrant worker, who has been living a life at stake, was shaken to the roots of Corona 19. On December 26-30, heard the New Year’s wishes of those who had a hard time in the past year. The end of the long tunnel is not yet visible, but everyone was carefully drawing the’world outside the tunnel’ in their minds. ‘Recovery of ordinary daily life’ is what everyone who has endured last year wants, but they are more desperate this year.

■ Isolation Ward Nurse “Now. Now is the hardest”
“Now. Now is the hardest.”
Lee Amugae, 26, a nurse working in a COVID-19 quarantine ward in Seoul, responded with a sigh when asked about the most difficult moment in 2020. He has been working as a nurse in a public hospital for 4 years, and he said he is feeling severe fatigue and pressure these days. It is because there are many cases of severely ill patients being hospitalized while maintaining around 1,000 corona19 confirmed patients every day. Many patients were unable to move at all, so they changed their posture every two hours, helped with meals, and changed urine lines and diapers. “Psychological fatigue is as great as physical fatigue. There are too many patients whose condition has been rapidly deteriorating lately, but there is a limit to treatment because the beds and staff are insufficient. In the past, patients who were in poor condition were moved to a large hospital on the same day, but these days, they sometimes have to wait a few days. If you ever die, the pressure to do what to do is very intense.” Even in the middle of winter, the stuffy and hot protective clothing has become a daily routine since March of last year. I can’t go to the bathroom wearing protective clothing, so I endured even if I’m thirsty until I put on the protective clothing. Lee, who lives alone, was unable to properly meet family and friends this year because of concerns about corona19 infection. “When I saw the news that people were crowding somewhere or running a club secretly, I was inevitably feeling hated.” It is also difficult to organize patients’ parcels. It was announced that the delivery was allowed only once a week per patient, but the delivery came three or four times, and items that could not be brought in were secretly sent. Nevertheless, the joy of everyday life begins with caring for the patient. “I am most proud of the time to see off the cured patient’s discharge. There are many people who say thank you at 90 degrees.” For Mr. Lee, Corona 19 is a’feeling of mission’. However, since the sense of mission cannot be sustained,’improved treatment’ was selected as the wish this year. “It seems that an important role has been assigned to me in a national disaster, so I am working with a sense of mission. However, as the workload continues to increase, more and more colleagues want to resign because of the feeling of deprivation from the difference in salaries from external nurses. This year, I hope that the existing hospital nurses are treated properly.” By Kim Yoon-joo, staff reporter [email protected]

■ Confirmation “Corona 19 is a shadow to me”

On June 9 last year, at 2 am, Park Amugae (25), who could not sleep, rang a cell phone ringer. In a conversation with Mr. Park, that was “the moment I heard the scariest ringtone in my life.” “The health center said that if the Corona 19 test result is negative, it will notify you by text or phone if it is positive.” Park was in self-quarantine after receiving a call from a company where he had been working part-time two days before he was diagnosed with a confirmed case. As soon as I heard that it was confirmed, tears began to fill up. I also heard unfair feelings afterward. “Because I have never played with many people.” From the day he received the phone call, Park was hospitalized for a full month until July 8 for Corona 19 treatment. When the trip to the United States, which he had prepared by saving money for two years as a part-time job, was destroyed by Corona 19, even when a group infection from the Itaewon club occurred in May last year, he never imagined that corona infection would be his job. Park, who lives in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, works at a company near her house at 8 am, works until 2 pm, eats at a convenience store, and studies English at a study cafe until 10 pm, then returns home. Repeated throughout the week. “I’m really in the house. I didn’t go out well on the weekends.” He said he wore a mask every day. However, to eat, I had to take off my mask, and I remembered the moments of rewriting it. The Corona 19 virus broke through that gap. There was another pain that was worse than the confirmation. The younger brother, who had passed by a few days before the confirmation, had to self-isolate for two weeks. My younger brother, who was preparing for the police exam, passed the written test and was ahead of the physical exam. My younger brother couldn’t go to the physical fitness academy where he registered for the exam. I had to do push-ups or sit-ups in the room. Fortunately, my younger brother passed the final exam in the exams taken after the qualification was over. “The test I prepared for three years was burning because of me.” Park reportedly spent two weeks in the hospital crying over the guilt of putting the people he loved at risk. Slowly adjusting to the hospital life, Park started YouTube to share the process with her family and relatives. The first episode of Park’s Vlog (YouTube channel’Innocent Life’), which started with 8 subscribers, exceeded 1 million views. This channel included Park’s hospital life and’plasma donation’ that took place on October 30th. Park’s treatment and his brother’s test were over, but Corona 19 was still not over. “I thought that if he was cured, everything could go back as before, but there was a prejudice against the confirmed case. I just lived my daily life… ”Park said that Corona 19 is a’inseparable shadow’ to him. When asked,’What do you want in 2021?’ Park laughed, saying, “Will you go back to 2019?”, and after a while, “I think it would be better to overcome the corona than to go back.” “There will be no corona19 virus in the same way as we return or overcome, but we need to overcome it to know our precious daily life.” By Lee Ju-bin, staff reporter [email protected]

■ Delivery engineer “Living with dinner this year… ”

“Corona 19 is just like makgeolli.” When I asked Kim Amugae (59), a courier driver in the sixth year,’What does Corona 19 mean to you’, an unexpected answer came back. When he made a phone call, he was about to have a cup of makgeolli at home after hard work. The last year overlapped with the makgeolli cup in front of me. “If you drink it shortly, it will only give you an arousal effect, but if you drink it for a long time, you will become unhappy. The same goes for society. If it passed shortly, it would have been a lesson for infectious diseases, but since it has become too long, it becomes chronic, and everyone seems to have become very difficult.” Last year was an exceptionally hard time for him. Due to Corona 19, parcel delivery volume increased by 30-40% compared to 2019. On days when the stock is at its peak, close to 400 items are sometimes processed. Mr. A, whose knees are not getting better, sleeps with parse every evening after work. There were also many heartbreaking moments. Mr. Kim is the most heartbreaking about not going to the hospital properly, saying that he has to deal with his supplies even if his colleagues are sick and injured. “It’s summer, maybe. I had a friend in my mid forties. He said that he had been sitting down on the stairs for more than an hour because he suddenly felt weak and dizzy while carrying a package the day before. Because of the time to go to and from the hospital, everyone can’t afford to go. Then I finally quit.” There is also something I realized because of Corona 19. It is the preciousness of the people around you. It has been a long time since the joy of life of drinking soju by meeting friends with wrinkles on their faces has disappeared. “It was so precious to meet people close to you. Paradoxically, I think I learned more about the importance of my surroundings.” Still, it is said that there is something to laugh because of Corona 19. Once or twice a month, in front of the front door of a delivery house, he encounters a message that says, “Please do your best, the courier driver,” written in crooked letters like a child. Along with the note, there are vitamin drinks, chocolate pies, and tangerines. It is a landscape that was rarely seen before the Corona 19 broke out. “Thank you enough to laugh. I feel so good and I think about it all day long. Thank you for knowing that the courier driver is suffering.” There are two things he wants this year. ‘The end of Corona 19′ and’Life with dinner.’ “Last year, the fee per case has been reduced. If you raise the fee a little and add more couriers, the money you receive will not be the same even if the quantity in charge of each person decreases. We want to go home in the evening and have dinner with our family. There are more days off and I want to go on vacation with my family. It will be possible only after the corona 19 is over.” By Jeon Kwang-jun, staff reporter [email protected]

■ Students and their families with intellectual disabilities “If we open the welfare center once or twice a week… ”

“Because I can’t go out properly, my child is trapped in the house all year long. It was a dark year for both the disabled child and the family.” Park Amugae (53), who has a child with severe intellectual disability, sighed on a phone call. Park’s first daughter, Sumin (pseudonym, 15), is currently attending a special class at a middle school in Incheon. Mr. Park said, “In fact, since face-to-face education is essential for students with disabilities, there were many cases where they couldn’t even attend school, so it was a year in which education was not actually done. For Mr. Park, Corona 19 was’despair invisible’. The epidemic, which was likely to end soon, has spread over time. Each time, the level of distancing increased, and the number of people attending school declined. The remote class was difficult for Sumin. When she started online for the first time in April, Park had to follow the teacher’s instructions instead of Sumin. It was’parents start school’. Mr. Park said, “When I told the teacher that I couldn’t keep up with the online class, the teacher asked me to check attendance. Since then, there has been no education that deserves to be provided by the school.” For Sumin, the absence of education is a’regression’. Last year, Sumin had only two months of in-person education at school. The welfare center, which was taking after-school classes, also closed. Mr. Park complained of the difficulties, saying, “It is a difficult situation for children with disabilities to’maintain the status quo’ only through continuous exchanges through external activities.” As external activities decreased, Sumin showed sudden behavior, such as hitting himself on the head. Mr. Park explained, “I am frustrated and worried because I can’t express complaints in language in a situation where stress is not relieved. There are also some parents who have been depressed after caring for disabled children after Corona 19.” did. Park’s wish this year is simple. “Please, I hope the Disabled Welfare Center is not completely closed. Even once or twice a week is fine. That’s the way my child and I can get even a little out of breath.” By Kang Jae-gu, staff reporter [email protected]

■ Government complaint call center counselor “Treat us as business partners”

“Isn’t the corona spread like this because the Prime Minister’s name is Germ? Who will be responsible for this situation?” Seok Amugae, 41, a counselor at the government complaints information call center (110 call center), had to accept ‘Corona Blue’ (depression caused by Corona 19) and resentment delivered through the handset last year. “If I didn’t finish speaking, I was a person who kept calling while changing pay phones. I guessed that there was a lot of stress to say that I was unemployed due to corona and that I was only at home, so I waited until I finished talking.” Seok, a counselor for 4 years, had a particularly difficult time last year as a’emotional worker’. As the Corona 19 crisis deepened, the government issued various subsidies policies, and various inquiries from all the people in this regard were poured out to 110 call centers. “The average call time per day did not exceed 3 to 3 hours and 30 minutes, but when the corona broke out, I confirmed with my two eyes that I spoke an average of 5 to 6 hours a day from March to September. There were also many counselors who were straining their bodies as they were hanging on the phone all day except for lunch and toilet hours.” The number of’waiting customers’ in the upper left corner of the PC monitor for business also crushed the hearts of all counselors, including Sim. Seok said, “The counselors didn’t receive anything, but the phone was bursting with just one line of news that the disaster support fund was paid. In July, when the emergency employment security subsidy was announced, there were times when the maximum number of customers (waiting customers) exceeded 900.” From January 1 this year, Seok, who is currently a member of the Korea Corporation, will change his status to a public service in the Rights Committee of the’Primary Office’ in accordance with the Moon Jae-in administration’s policy of’conversion of non-regular workers in the public sector to regular workers’. However, since some of his colleagues have to go through interviews, Seok’s wish for the new year is’the transition of his colleagues to public service.’ “I hope that all 48 people who are eligible to be hired will be converted (to public service) without any problems. Also, I would like the public officials to treat us as business partners, not as subcontractors.” Excessive workload is also a task that needs to be improved in the new year. “The third disaster support fund will be paid soon, but there are already a lot of inquiries. We have to start guiding all the people again.” For Seok, Corona 19 is still a’unfinished business’. By Jang Pil-soo, staff reporter [email protected]

■ Migrant Workers “I am not a virus spreader”

“I thought that the days when migrants can live equally while being guaranteed basic rights in Korean society are still far away.” Udaya Rai, chairman of the Migrant Workers’ Union, confided that it was a year when he felt discrimination against migrants while looking back on the year 2020 he suffered from Corona 19. Chairman Udaya said, “Before the Corona 19 epidemic, we have been working and living together in Korea, but the gaze of seeing us as potential virus spreaders was too hard to bear. In a situation where the right to health is being threatened, the Korean government did not help us.” No one has been threatened with health by Corona 19, but it came as a bigger threat to migrants. He cited the most difficult period when migrants who had not been to Korea for less than 6 months in the early days of the Corona 19 epidemic or who could not subscribe to health insurance due to unregistered stays could not obtain masks. Migrant unions and some civic groups collected masks and applied for self-help, but it was not enough. This is why Chairman Udaya said, “Corona 19 is an enemy that threatens health (threats) to me.” Many workers lost their jobs due to Corona 19, but migrants were fired more easily than Koreans. When the National Human Rights Commission conducted a survey of 307 migrants residing in Seoul, Gyeonggi and other regions from July to August and announced, 65.7% of respondents said that’economic damage caused by income decline’ is the most difficult. Appeared. 28.5% of respondents said they had experienced wage delinquency and wage cuts due to Corona 19, and 15% said they were fired. However, migrants were excluded from support such as emergency disaster subsidies or unemployment benefits because they were not Koreans. As Corona 19 is prolonged, the places where they live are also becoming unstable. “The Korean government temporarily extended the period of stay for migrants who lost their job but were unable to return to their home country due to a cut off flight route. However, an increasing number of migrants have no place to stay because they do not give them permission to work.” The migrant union estimates that there are thousands of immigrants with unstable residence. On December 20, last year, Chairman Udaya’s voice trembled as he talked about the incident that a migrant worker was found dead in a green house on a farm in Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do. “How can the case of the loss of a person’s life in an illegal green house lodging happen in Korea, where it is going to advanced countries? I don’t think migrant workers are viewed as humans, but rather as working machines.” His wish is the same as last year. “In 2021, the Employment Permit System, which restricts the basic rights of migrant workers, will surely be abolished, so I hope they can work safely.” By Jae-ho Lee, staff reporter [email protected]