"Join Social Distancing"... Incheon City Uses Disaster Fund to Encourage Participation from Academies and PC Rooms

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City is urging citizens to participate in social distancing to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and is promoting strict social distancing measures for churches, PC rooms, academies, nursing facilities, and other places.

The city emphasized that since the COVID-19 virus is highly contagious and a single index case can lead to community transmission and cluster infections, everyone regardless of age or gender must remain vigilant and participate in social distancing to break the chain of spread.

To this end, the city requested adherence to national action guidelines including ▲ refraining from gatherings, events, and travel ▲ going out only for essential reasons such as medical visits, commuting, and purchasing daily necessities ▲ maintaining a 2-meter health distance ▲ closing shared spaces at workplaces and sending home immediately if symptoms appear ▲ following personal hygiene rules such as handwashing and cough etiquette ▲ disinfecting and ventilating surrounding environments.

As part of social distancing, the city plans to allocate 6 billion KRW from the disaster management fund to encourage voluntary participation in compliance with quarantine guidelines by religious facilities, indoor sports facilities, entertainment venues, PC rooms, academies, karaoke rooms, and others that suspend operations.

Since the 10th of this month, the city has been implementing facility safety protection measures equivalent to preventive cohort isolation and a one-on-one close monitoring system by public officials for a total of 540 facilities including living facilities for the elderly and disabled, and medical institutions, which are at high risk of cluster infections. Each facility is monitored twice daily by a dedicated public official who immediately supports any needs of the facility.

Additionally, for about 2,000 indoor businesses such as PC rooms, karaoke rooms, academies, and sports facilities that require intensive management, the city strongly recommends temporary closure and is thoroughly inspecting quarantine conditions. Previously, on the 26th and 27th, joint inspections with the government were conducted on high-risk facilities including religious facilities, sports facilities, entertainment venues, call centers, and nursing facilities.

For 3,372 church facilities, on-site inspections are being conducted to check the conduct of Sunday worship services and compliance with infectious disease prevention guidelines. Dedicated public officials will be assigned to facilities that do not comply and strong administrative measures will be taken.

Along with the government raising the crisis alert level to "serious," since last month, the city has recommended temporary closure of all facilities where infants to adolescents live, including academies, and is encouraging participation from the academy sector through meetings with the Incheon branch of the Korea Academy Federation.

All public facilities including 59 public libraries, 1,507 senior welfare facilities, district and county resident autonomy center programs, and sports facilities continue to be closed urgently.