From the 8th, General Citizens Can Also Apply for Free Preliminary Testing
An instructor and two students who worked at an academy located in Yeouido were confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). On the 29th, citizens who visited the Yeongdeungpo Public Health Center screening clinic in Seoul lined up to undergo diagnostic testing. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@
[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 1st that it will actively promote proactive COVID-19 testing for 6,207 students residing in school dormitories and 595 staff members working at English kindergartens to prevent community cluster infections caused by asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers.
The city recently formed a Proactive Testing Committee consisting of about 10 internal and external experts, and held its first meeting on the 20th of last month, deciding to conduct comprehensive testing targeting students in school dormitories, where the risk of infection is high due to communal living, and staff such as instructors at English kindergartens in Seocho-gu.
With the recent reopening of elementary, middle, and high schools for in-person classes, concerns among citizens about student safety have increased due to confirmed cases emerging in some areas such as Incheon and Daegu. Considering that young children and students have a high transmission rate in case of cluster infections, preemptive prevention is urgent.
Proactive testing is a method of conducting COVID-19 tests on high-risk groups and facilities before confirmed cases occur, to proactively identify asymptomatic carriers who have not yet been detected in the community. To expedite testing, the pooling method will be utilized.
The city will first secure the list of 6,207 students residing in dormitories at 62 schools operating dormitories within the jurisdiction in consultation with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, and conduct comprehensive testing from the 3rd to the 12th.
For each target school, a mobile walk-through screening clinic will be set up on the respective school playgrounds, and a mobile specimen collection team composed of medical staff from municipal hospitals will visit directly to collect specimens.
However, for schools with a small number of dormitory residents where mobile specimen collection is difficult, nearby municipal hospitals will be designated as testing sites to conduct the tests.
Additionally, in cooperation with Seocho-gu, proactive testing will be conducted from the 1st to the 10th for 595 staff members including instructors and drivers at 24 English kindergartens in Seocho-gu.
According to the testing schedule for each English kindergarten, the target individuals must visit the screening clinic at the Seocho-gu Public Health Center to undergo COVID-19 testing.
If any positive cases are detected during the proactive testing process, the city will immediately coordinate with 25 public health centers to take measures according to the confirmed case response procedures, including epidemiological investigations and comprehensive surveys of the affected groups and facilities.
Furthermore, starting from the 8th, the city will accept applications from the general public to select proactive testing targets, who will be able to visit designated municipal hospitals directly to receive free testing.
Mayor Park Won-soon stated, "Seoul is focusing on the characteristics of COVID-19, which has high transmissibility even in asymptomatic and mild cases. We will block silent transmission proactively, ahead of confirmed case responses." He added, "Through continuous proactive testing, we aim to alleviate citizens' anxiety about asymptomatic infections and concentrate on preventing the spread of community infections."
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