Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju 'Automated Screening Clinic' Recognized by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety

Awarded Excellence Prize at the 'Local Regulatory Innovation Best Practices Competition'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] The ‘Automated Screening Clinic’ in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City has been recognized by the government.

According to Gwangsan-gu on the 24th, the ‘Automated Screening Clinic,’ created through community collaboration, won the Excellence Award in the Corporate Difficulty Resolution category at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s ‘2020 Local Regulatory Innovation Best Practice Competition.’ As a result, Gwangsan-gu secured 50 million KRW in national funding.

The automated screening clinic in Gwangsan-gu is evaluated as a new-concept quarantine facility designed to completely separate the spaces of suspected infected individuals and testers, automating the COVID-19 virus specimen collection process to enable safe testing without protective suits.

Earlier this year, Song Jongwoon, CEO of Isoltech, who was struggling due to blocked domestic and international sales channels amid the COVID-19 impact, developed a new screening clinic by introducing air control technology owned by his company.

The district shared its experience and know-how from operating screening clinics to reflect them in the new clinic’s production and facilitated research and experiments by Gwangju Technopark and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.

Moreover, materials and components from 11 small and medium-sized enterprises in Gwangju combined to create the automated screening clinic.

Furthermore, Gwangsan-gu purchased and used the automated screening clinic first and simultaneously promoted it to local governments nationwide. As a result, the automated screening clinic attracted nationwide attention and even interest from Chinese media.

Kim Samho, Mayor of Gwangsan-gu, said, “The automated screening clinic is a model of K-quarantine created through community collaboration, and the government’s selection of it as an excellent case confirms this fact. Gwangsan-gu will continue its reputation as a business-friendly city that supports corporate competitiveness beyond resolving corporate difficulties.”