Sadly there have been reinfection cases,at least in China and here in Korea.
Some people who had been declared as recovered caught it again, though it is not 100% sure if the cases were not fully recovered or really caught it again.
Korea now has over 8000 infected people, the numbers exploded after patient 31 went to several church/cult gatherings and they went everywhere. We have a city, Daegu, that's about 90% infected, but it isn't locked down. At hospitals in Seoul they ask for recent travel history and now also ask if you have been to that city recently.
When I first tried to get an endocrinology appointment at 1 hospital, they were all cancelled because the endo had been to Daegu the weekend before - and they wanted to be safe.
Some hospitals have designated Corona checking stations, some hospitals don't allow any Corona patients. We have a hotline to call if we are worried or have symptoms and they tell us which hospital to go to to get tested. Korea doesn't have an NHS but still has insurance - if your doctor refers you the test is cheap or free, if you just want to test for peace of mind it is a bit expensive, however if you do test positive, the government refunds the test fee for you.
Schools were meant to start 3rd March and have been delayed, even Kindergarten and hagwons are closed. Other big events were all cancelled too and we are encouraged to practicd social distancing.
We have a text message alert system where we get the latest news for cases nearby and where they have been as soon as travel history is known - we are told where they have been and which places are now closed for disinfection. Subway cars, stations and even streets are routinely disinfected now, some via drones.
We evem have a map and live website we can use to see who was nearby (chrome or google should automatically translate for you):
https://coronamap.site/
https://corona-live.com/
At the beginning around a hundred, 200 cases there was panic buying here too but we've been dealing with this for over a month now so shops have caught back up with demand. Hand sanitizer and thermometers are still super expensive, mask prices tripled or quadrupled too but the government started an initiative where they stopped export of masks and you can buy masks at normal prices at a pharmacy, once a week, 2 per person, on a certain day correlating with the last number of your birth year.
Tons of measurements put in place where the UK could get some ideas from.
But you can't have bad corona statistics if you don't test for corona in the first place, so they make it seem like it isn't that big of a deal when in reality, no one knows the magnitude of this pandemic.
Advice here is always wash your hands, notify the doc of any symptoms, wear a mask if going out. I don't really leave my house without a mask or scarf now and even at work (school, currently with no kids) we are encouraged to keep the mask on.
Hope the UK and US will pick up some of these measures to protect the vulnerable more.