COVID-19 Testing Required for Military Enlistment to Assess Risk Among Youth (Update)

In early February, enlistees, their families, and friends are greeting each other in front of the enlistment screening station at the Nonsan Army Training Center in Chungnam.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The government announced that it is considering a plan to conduct COVID-19 diagnostic tests for all soldiers entering training centers.

On the 13th, Jung Eun-kyung, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters for COVID-19, said, "We are planning, in consultation with the Ministry of National Defense, to conduct diagnostic tests for all recruits or those entering training centers in their 20s and 30s to determine the extent of infection exposure."

This measure is based on the assumption that a significant number of people infected with COVID-19 have mild or no symptoms and thus remain unmanaged within the quarantine network. The recent cluster infection originating from Itaewon clubs was first identified on the 6th with the 66th patient in Yongin, but it is also possible that the virus had already spread around multiple clubs in the Itaewon area before that.

In particular, young patients often have mild or asymptomatic cases, making quarantine management difficult. About one-third of the confirmed cases in the Itaewon club cluster were asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis. Seoul City is also promoting a plan to conduct pooled testing by collecting 5 to 10 samples from group facilities densely populated by people in their 20s and 30s, based on the same rationale.

Regarding the full testing of entrants, Head Jung said, "Since we will test all entrants nationwide, it will be possible to assess the level of risk and the risk that the quarantine authorities are unaware of outside the quarantine network."