Potential roles of social distancing in mitigating the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in South Korea

On January 20, 2020, the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in South Korea. After a rapid outbreak, the number of incident cases has been consistently decreasing since early March; this decrease has been widely attributed to its intensive testing. We report here on the likely role of social distancing in reducing transmission in South Korea. Our analysis suggests that transmission may still be persisting in some regions.