[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 29th that it has activated the Disaster Countermeasure Support Headquarters as the crisis alert level for the novel coronavirus infection, which started in Wuhan, China, was raised from caution to warning.
As the government expanded the surveillance target from entrants from Wuhan, China to entrants from all regions of China, the city decided to organize and operate the Disaster Countermeasure Support Headquarters to more thoroughly support quarantine measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in the local community.
The Disaster Countermeasure Support Headquarters is composed of seven members from related departments, including the Director of the Citizen Safety Office as the head, the Disaster Response Division, the Health Policy Division, and the Safety Policy Office. Its roles include supporting the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s Countermeasure Support Headquarters, managing the status of quarantine measures, identifying and reporting the progress and cooperation requests of each institution such as autonomous districts, and providing disaster management fund support if necessary.
If the infection spreads further and confirmed cases occur in the region, the response level will be raised, and the Regional Disaster Safety Countermeasure Headquarters will be activated. The Regional Disaster Safety Countermeasure Headquarters is the highest disaster response organization headed by the Mayor of Gwangju.
Jung Min-gon, Director of the Citizen Safety Office, said, “We will revive the experience of maintaining a clean infectious disease area during the MERS outbreak in 2015,” and added, “We hope all citizens will strictly follow handwashing and cough etiquette to prevent infectious diseases.”
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