In 2020, the worldwide severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic resulted in large numbers of patients and shortages of medical facilities.12 Community treatment centers (CTCs) are innovative responses to the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea.3 The Korean government converted existing accommodation facilities into patient facilities to cope with the lack of hospital beds. COVID-19 patients with no symptoms or mild symptoms did not need intensive medical treatment, but they still needed to be quarantined until they were clear of the virus to prevent the spread of the disease.4 Further, medical monitoring is also needed to detect acute deterioration and to deal with it. The CTC is an intermediate model between hospitals and self-isolation at home.3 COVID-19 patients with minimal symptoms stayed in separate rooms in CTCs, and the medical staff of the CTCs consisted of doctors and nurses that monitored patients periodically, including using various telemedicine methods including smartphones.

The mass outbreak of a viral disease is going to cause public anxiety and subsequently lead to various mental health issues, both for the infected individuals and the general population.56 Despite the efforts of public health authorities and hospitals to make the quarantine more acceptable to patients, and it is legally and scientifically justified from both the individual and public health viewpoints to quarantine those patients, the quarantine itself is essentially an involuntary process that involves the restriction of basic human rights, so there is always the possibility that the quarantine becomes a traumatic experience for those involved. Indeed, one psychiatrist consulting the CTC in which the authors of this article were involved reported that patients worried about their family, especially the children that were left out; felt guilty that they might have infected their loved ones; had anxiety about uncertainty of this novel disease; worried about their own jobs and workplaces; felt frustrated about the postponement of important personal or occupational events; and experienced boredom during their isolation. Those negative psychosocial factors can combine and might lead to the deterioration of the patient's mental health. Quarantines were indeed reported to be associated with suicide, anger and other unpleasant psychological consequences in several other literatures and reviews from previous and current infectious disease outbreaks.78 These possible negative psychological costs should be mitigated as far as possible if the quarantine is to be successful against the viral outbreak.9 Therefore, the CTC that we have operated screened patients' mental health vigorously and tried to provide the patients with various mental health promoting programmes and activities.

The objective of this article is to assess and understand the mental health issues we observed during the operation of a CTC during the first months of the COVID-19 crisis in Korea and provide insights on the principles of operating quarantine facilities during this crisis period.

During the patients' first week of stay in the CTC, depression did not seem to be more prevalent than that of the general population in Korea. The prevalence of depression with PHQ-9 ≥ 10 was 6.5% among the study subjects for first week stay in the CTC, while in the general Korean population, the prevalence of PHQ-9 ≥ 10 depression was 6.7% (Shin, 2017). For the GAD-7, there are no population level data in Korea, but PTSD is possibly more prevalent among the patients in the CTC than the estimates from general population, though the data are not directly comparable due to different measures (Cho 2015, Jeon 2007). One literature from China reporting the mental health status among those quarantined as having close contacts with COVID-19 and frontline medical personnel showed a 22.1% prevalence of depression with PHQ-9 ≥ 5 and a 22.2% prevalence of anxiety with the GAD-7 ≥ 5.24 Our study sample showed more depression and less anxiety (24.3% PHQ-9 ≥ 5 depression and 14.9% GAD-7 ≥ 5 anxiety) since our subjects are not close contacts or medical personnel under surveillance, but rather are confirmed mild cases; therefore, these results are not comparable. The prevalence of more-than-moderate depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 5), anxiety (GAD-7 ≥ 5) and possible PTSD remained similar across the four weeks of observations, though the prevalence of severe depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 10), which can be regarded as clinical depressive disorder, increased after four weeks of stay. In contrast, somatic symptoms measured by the PHQ-15 seemed to decrease during their stay.

The stigma of the COVID-19 infection and previous psychiatric history were two important risk factors for depression and anxiety, as well as possible PTSD during the first week of stay in the CTC. It is of note that the total duration of isolation until the first mental health assessment (that is, the sixth day of stay in the CTC), which would include the self-isolation period at home and 6 or 7 days in the CTC, was not a significant risk factor for possible depression and anxiety, while it was a significant risk factor for possible PTSD.

The stigma of the COVID-19 infection is indeed an important societal concern. The current COVID-19 outbreak has provoked the social stigma of those infected, as well as discriminatory behaviors towards foreigners, certain ethnic groups or other minority populations including LGBTQs worldwide, almost to the level of xenophobia in some countries.25262728 Even the necessary public health measures would have created tensions leading to social stigma if they were not carefully prepared and conducted.29 As UNICEF clarified in their guide for social stigma associated with COVID-19, the situation itself - the newness of the disease, the fear of the unknown, and the ease of associating that fear with “others” in this COVID-19 situation30 - looks very volatile. There is a plethora of hatred responses from the media and SNS that can be observed every day. However, stigmatizing and labelling others potentially lead to deviant behaviours, which might include the concealment of the infection, the delay of immediate treatment, or the refusal of healthy behaviors, and might ultimately undermine the much needed social cohesion and solidarity during the crisis. Of course, on an individual level, stigma and labelling will lead to unnecessary suffering and possible mental health problems for COVID-19 patients and their families. In these regards, the public health system should also concern itself with mitigating the stigma of the COVID-19 infection if COVID-19 containment efforts are to truly be successful. Stigma mitigation programmes such as anti-stigma education, advocacy for patients and their families and media monitoring will be important in this regard, but more importantly, careful, balanced attention to human rights should be given by government and public health authorities, as well as medical institutions providing treatment and quarantining.

On the individual level, the important risk of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and PTSD can be found in one's previous psychiatric history. It can be expected that personal vulnerability poses as an important risk factor for mental health problems during any social crisis, and several studies involving disaster and refugee settings3132 indicated that one's previous psychiatric history was a major mental health risk. In addition to the fact that quarantine and isolation inevitably place infected persons in a closed space, the stress of a sudden life change, be it as short as a month, and the degree of uncertainty regarding the prognosis or when they are going to be clear of the virus would contribute to the aggravation or recurrence of existing mental disorders among the patients placed in quarantine. Additionally, in these prolonged disaster equivalent situations, many patients with chronic illnesses including mental disorders will find it difficult to obtain the necessary medications or psychosocial supports both because of their own isolation and the shut-down of healthcare facilities such as clinics and pharmacies, and this would make the already dire situation much worse. Therefore, special care should be given to existing mental disorders for those admitted with mild COVID-19 symptoms. Vigorous screening for mental health symptoms and assessment of patients' past psychiatric history should be mandatory during admission, and possibly at regular intervals during their stay; and counselling psychiatrists or psychologists should be on hand for further assessment and intervention. Additionally, the isolation duration before first mental health assessment (during the first week of admission) did not affect the risk of depression or anxiety, though it did affect the risk of PTSD symptoms. Most of the patients admitted to the CTC were self-isolated in their own houses before coming to the CTC. The fear and anxiety of the unknown viral disease, the feeling of containment, adequate medical care not being readily available while all the media warned about the seriousness of the disease, and the self-isolation period might be traumatic, even if patients had minimal symptoms from the virus.

However, the consulting psychiatrist of the center reported that many of the people who requested counselling on admission but did not have a past psychiatric history expressed quick relief of their worries and anxiety after a few days of stay in the CTC because they felt that now they were placed in professional and adequate care. The gradual decrement of patients with significant somatic symptoms according to the PHQ-15 might also be explained by this factor since stress and emotional distress would cause vague physical symptoms, even without the presence of the formal somatoform disorder.

Another result of note regarding the isolation period was that although the majority of the people admitted to this CTC were discharged in less than 4 weeks, the prevalence of a possible depressive disorder (that is, severe depressive symptoms according to the PHQ-9) was seen to increase after 4 weeks of stay. The consulting psychiatrist reported that the sense of isolation, deprivation and uncertainty started to take over the sense of security among those individuals whose stay extended beyond four weeks. One study from China during the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 reported that a short quarantine of 7 days did not have a negative psychological effect on those quarantined.33 Therefore, care should be taken for not to prolong the isolation without the appropriate clinical necessity, and the viral test scheduling and discharge guidelines should be well balanced over the protection of the general public and those quarantined.

A recent review emphasizes that information & communication, the provision of supplies, minimal duration of isolation and voluntary quarantine rather than required quarantine are key factors for psychological mitigation during the COVID-19 crisis.9 Various international organizations also emphasize that the first step in mental health promotion during the disaster would be providing basic services (food, shelter, water, basic health care, and the control of communicable diseases), security, the restoring of communication (telephone lines, etc.) and providing relevant information for those affected.3435 This means that providing a sense of safety with the fulfilment of basic needs, communication with their important ones, and a sense of what happened and what will happen in the future are important disaster management principles, especially for the promotion of mental health and psychosocial well-being. From this perspective, the stay in the CTC was likely seen as humane, caring, and secure by the individuals admitted here and not as a traumatic isolation forced by this unprecedented and unexpected disaster. The authors believe that sufficient human and medical resources deployed for medical surveillance and caring, individual and spacious spaces, the basic sense of privacy, and maintained connectivity to the outside with various IT technologies would be the important factors in the successful operation of containment facilities during a viral outbreak crisis, both for the containment of the virus and the protection of the psychosocial well-being and mental health of patients.

We found that the CTC model would be one effective innovation to counter a mass outbreak such as the current COVID-19 crisis. The CTC can take care of the patients with minimal viral symptoms and enable the hospitals to focus on more serious cases; furthermore, the CTC is able to provide much needed psychosocial support for the victims of COVID-19. The CTC seems to change the possible traumatic experience of quarantine into a more humane and cared-for experience. The authors expect that establishing well-provided CTCs for an infectious outbreak such as the current COVID-19 crisis possibly decreases the total social cost of the situation. This decrease occurs not only by making the whole containment system more efficient but also by making the quarantine experience more acceptable to the public than simple isolation facilities.