Park Won-soon Introduces 'COVID-19 Response Know-How' in Video Conference with 45 Cities Worldwide

▲ Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is holding a video conference with mayors from 45 cities in 31 countries around the world on the 27th. (Provided by Seoul City)

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 29th that Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon shared Seoul's quarantine experiences and know-how during a video conference on joint response to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) with mayors from 45 major cities across 31 countries.

Mayor Park attended the video conference from his office starting around 11:15 PM on the 27th until approximately 12:25 AM on the 28th. Although the originally scheduled time was 40 minutes, the meeting ended later due to the strong interest of the participants.

The city reported that Mayor Park introduced Seoul's infectious disease response principle that "excessive response is better than delayed response," and provided detailed explanations of proactive and swift response policies such as a rapid diagnostic system. He also explained that to minimize infection risks for medical staff, Seoul introduced drive-through and walk-through screening clinics for rapid testing and enhanced response capabilities by operating treatment facilities separately according to patient severity.

The video conference was attended by mayors from 45 cities worldwide, including Mayor Park, as well as mayors from Los Angeles and San Francisco in the United States, London in the United Kingdom, and London and Milan in Italy. Seoul stated that the combined population of the cities participating in the meeting reached 360 million. This meeting was arranged after Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles and chair of the global network 'C40'?which was formed by 96 major cities worldwide to jointly address climate change?urgently proposed the video conference to Mayor Park and requested a presentation on Seoul's COVID-19 quarantine and response know-how. Seoul has been participating in the group's steering committee since 2011 and currently serves as a vice-chair city.

At the meeting, Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, emphasized that "sharing experiences and know-how among cities is important in crisis situations," and Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, UK, stated, "Cities are at the core of this crisis, and unprecedented measures will be necessary worldwide to curb the spread of COVID-19."