The new coronavirus has affected over 16 million people and killed over 650,000 around the world so far. Korea reported 14,203 confirmed cases and 300 deaths as of Tuesday.

The Korean health authorities were at the highest alert level in late February to early March when the number of Covid-19 cases spiked in Daegu and neighboring areas since the first Covid-19 case reported on Jan. 20.

This is an overall view of the K-Hospital Fair that took place at COEX in southern Seoul in 2017. (KHA)

However, the authorities and healthcare professionals swiftly worked together to identify, quarantine, and treat the patients, flattening the rising curb of the confirmed cases.

As the World Health Organization lauded Korea’s response as exemplary, the world is paying more attention to the nation’s healthcare system to control and prevent infectious diseases.

Grasping the chance to promote the domestic medical service capabilities, the Korea Hospital Association and related industrial organs will hold the “K-Hospital Fair 2020,” an exhibition of hospitals and medical devices, at COEX from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2.

During the event, the organizers will hold a “K-Quarantine Special Exhibition” to share hospitals’ experience of handling Covid-19 and new solutions to brace for the second outbreak of Covid-19.

The exhibition will introduce technologies, medical devices, and domestic companies' equipment that helped the nation put Covid-19 under control.

H Plus Yangji Hospital introduced the walk-through Covid-19 test for the first time, and Korea Kiyon will showcase the latest walk-through diagnostic system.

Over 50 foreign media covered h Plus Yangji Hospital’s walk-through testing facility in over 20 countries, including the Washington Post and the Harvard Business Review.

The hospital said it would disclose the upgraded walk-through booth, which has an automated disinfection function, at the exhibition for the first time.

Korea Kiyon exported 42 units of the walk-through booth to six countries and recorded $310,000 in sales.

The exhibition will cover not only medical equipment such as medical masks, hand sanitizers, face shields, and protective clothing, but mobile negative pressure equipment, mobile digital X-rays, body temperature monitoring thermal imaging cameras, air purification and sterilizers, hospital quarantine systems, quarantine and disinfection robots, and a system to manage Covid-19-affected hospital employees.

The K-Hospital Fair will also include a digital healthcare special exhibition, which will introduce how the integration of ICT technologies and medicine can create new ways to prevent and treat diseases.

The Healthcare IT Innovation booth will show the medical industry's newest trends – artificial intelligence, big data, clouds, and the Internet of things.

Recently, Korea agreed to verify Dr. Answer, a Korean AI medical software, in Saudi Arabia’s six state-run hospitals. It is the first time that Dr. Answer is being tried out outside Korea.

The verification in Saudi Arabia will be meaningful as it could prove that Dr. Answer, initially designed for Koreans, could still be safe and effective in people of different races and lifestyles.

The organizers of the K-Hospital Fair said they would thoroughly prepare measures to prevent Covid-19 at the event.

They will use an unmanned kiosk registration system to minimize human contact, measure body temperatures of visitors at the entrance, obligate visitors to wear masks, regularly disinfect inside and outside of the exhibition, measure air quality in real-time, install cameras to help trace confirmed cases, and put more distance between seats at the seminar rooms.

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