All 239 Academy Instructors in Daechi-dong Tested Negative in Specimen Tests

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The spread of COVID-19 in the United States is becoming serious. Over the past week, the daily average number of confirmed cases in the U.S. has exceeded 60,000, with no state among the 50 states showing a decrease in cases. This is a very rapid increase compared to a month ago when the number had dropped to the 35,000 range.

Health experts warn that "within 1 to 2 weeks, the daily new cases will exceed 70,000 and surge rapidly like in Europe."

According to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from January 26 to October 3, the number of deaths in the U.S. increased by 299,028 compared to the average of the past five years, of which about two-thirds, 198,081, were due to COVID-19.

As of the 22nd, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. reached 210,000. The Washington Post predicted that "this year, COVID-19 will be the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer."

Europe, which has surpassed 7.3 million cumulative confirmed cases, looks like it has returned to March when COVID-19 was rampant. Amid ongoing high-intensity lockdown measures by country, Ireland has introduced the strongest measures among European countries. From this day, movement is restricted within 5 km of residents' homes for six weeks, and fines will be imposed for violations.

France, where the COVID-19 spread is most severe, has banned nighttime curfews in the capital region including Paris and eight other major cities since the 17th of this month. In Italy, all medium and large shopping centers except essential businesses such as grocery stores are prohibited from operating on weekends.

The UK government, despite experts' concerns, is considering deliberately infecting healthy young people aged 18 to 30 to accelerate the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

In South Korea, as of midnight on the 22nd, 121 new confirmed cases were reported, marking a return to triple digits after a week. Confirmed cases continue to emerge in medical institutions such as rehabilitation and nursing hospitals, where elderly and patients with underlying conditions are vulnerable to COVID-19, and new sporadic infections linked to acquaintances and family gatherings are also occurring.

Gangnam-gu also added one confirmed case each on the previous day and the day of reporting, bringing the cumulative confirmed cases to 300. Despite environmental factors such as high population density and a large floating population, similar to New York in the U.S., which make it easy to be exposed to cluster infections, the situation has been well managed so far because from the early stages of the outbreak, proactive random specimen testing has been conducted based on the infectious disease response principle of "early detection, early containment."

Since the previous day, Gangnam-gu has set up an emergency screening clinic near the Daechi 2-dong Community Center and is conducting a full inspection of 20,000 academy instructors until December 6. Fortunately, all 239 people tested the previous day received negative results.

Additionally, to ensure the health and safety of all examinees ahead of the December College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), a request has been made to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and Seoul City to proactively conduct specimen testing for academy instructors nationwide.

Gangnam-gu confirmed cases increased by 2 over the previous two days, bringing the cumulative total to 300. A resident of Daechi-dong was confirmed late the previous evening while in self-quarantine after contact with a local academy instructor who had previously tested positive, and a resident of Gaepo-dong was confirmed on the day of reporting in connection with the cluster infection at the StarQ Billiards Hall located in Gaepo-dong.

Meanwhile, the identities of many visitors who went to StarQ Billiards Hall (Nonhyeon-ro 12-gil 13) from the 8th to the 19th have not been confirmed. Visitors are urged to promptly visit the Gangnam-gu Public Health Center for testing.

As of this day, Gangnam-gu manages 784 people in self-quarantine, of whom 681 are overseas arrivals and 103 are domestic contacts.

The cumulative number of specimen tests conducted at the Gangnam-gu Public Health Center screening clinic is 62,646. Among the 318 tested the previous day, 36 were overseas arrivals and 282 were domestic residents.

In a video conference with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki the previous day, IMF Managing Director stated, "South Korea has suffered the least economic damage among OECD member countries due to its swift COVID-19 response. We will share South Korea's COVID-19 response cases with IMF member countries so that other countries can refer to them." This was an evaluation of balanced economic recovery and quarantine efforts, including four supplementary budgets in 60 years.

I believe that South Korea's economic policies and 'K-Quarantine' are raising the nation's prestige as a model case of quarantine worldwide, thanks to the cooperation of the residents who have endured great inconvenience and pain while actively cooperating.

As the district mayor, I sincerely thank the 570,000 residents of Gangnam-gu once again.

Meanwhile, the government plans to conduct a comprehensive inspection by December 3 of high-risk facilities such as clubs and multi-use facilities such as restaurants and cafes in the metropolitan area to check compliance with core quarantine measures. If core quarantine rules are violated even once, a "one-strike-out" policy will be applied, enforcing closure and fines.

In this regard, Gangnam-gu has been conducting weekly on-site inspections of multi-use facilities such as 262 singing practice rooms and 141 PC rooms in the district since the early stages of the outbreak.

The online simple entry log, which was developed by Gangnam-gu and received great attention, has been expanded and operated in 22 community centers since the previous day. After a one-month pilot operation at the district office starting last month, it has received great response from residents due to advantages such as being able to enter data without a smartphone and not being able to see others' personal information. Please be sure to use the convenient and secure online simple entry log when visiting community centers in the future.