[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province is expanding and reorganizing the currently operating quarantine headquarters related to the novel coronavirus infection into a "Crisis Response Center."
In addition, to minimize the damage to residents caused by the increase in infections, psychological treatment support will be provided, and free meals for the elderly will be promoted. The province will also urgently inject a total of 850 billion KRW in funds to support small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners in the province who are experiencing difficulties due to the infectious disease damage.
First, the province will convert the quarantine headquarters within the Gyeonggi Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters currently in operation into a "Crisis Response Center." This is a measure to strengthen the role of the infectious disease control tower. Accordingly, the center chief will be replaced from the existing division head to the Director of the Health and Welfare Bureau.
Through the center, the province will promote ▲ operation of a 24-hour call center and response support team ▲ securing additional hospital beds through public hospitals such as Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center ▲ expanding support for screening medical institutions by temporarily designating "Infectious Disease Management Institutions."
Also, within the center, city/county response support teams and medical institution response support teams will be activated, and various status analyses and emergency response policy preparations will be conducted together.
Furthermore, it will be responsible for assigning and adjusting isolation beds for patients requiring hospitalization such as confirmed and suspected cases in the province, supporting health center consultations, tracking patient movements and classifying contacts, and supporting epidemiological investigation dispatches.
To alleviate residents' anxiety and support psychological stability due to the spread of the infectious disease, the province will also operate the "Gyeonggi Province Disaster Psychological Support Team." Residents experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder such as anxiety, insomnia, and depression caused by the novel coronavirus can receive psychological counseling starting from the 9th.
To this end, the province has established a 24-hour hotline (1577-0199). Separately, psychological support counseling will also be provided through face-to-face consultations or visits to city/county mental health welfare centers.
Through psychological counseling, if individuals are identified as high-risk groups, continuous case management will be conducted, and treatment costs related to mental health medicine will also be supported.
To minimize damage to the local economy, the province will also inject emergency funds amounting to 850 billion KRW through the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation.
Lee Min-woo, Director of Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation, explained, "We plan to support 850 billion KRW, more than twice the 368.1 billion KRW provided during the 2015 MERS outbreak, to small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners in the province in relation to this infectious disease situation."
The Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation will also form a task force (TF) to establish a rapid support system for small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners in the province. The TF will be led by a full-time director of the sales division and will operate at all 23 sales branches of the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation in the province.
Earlier, the province recognized that about 20,000 elderly people who used senior citizen cafeterias due to the closure of welfare centers in the province had no place to eat on time, so it has been carrying out a lunchbox support project since the 3rd. The lunchboxes are delivered directly to the residences of the elderly through volunteers or are picked up by the elderly themselves.
The province is also expanding publicity on infectious disease management measures for foreigners such as Chinese nationals. On the 7th, the province held a "Meeting on Publicity and Management Measures for Foreign Residents to Prevent the Spread of the Novel Coronavirus Infection" jointly with city/county foreigner welfare centers at the Ansan Multicultural Global Center.
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