Seoul City: "If daily cases remain around 250 and the spread is not curbed, healthcare system collapse is inevitable"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] In the United States, the daily death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 3,000 for the first time, setting a record high.

In the U.S., just five days after surpassing 14 million cumulative confirmed cases on the 3rd, more than 1 million new cases were reported, indicating a situation spiraling out of control.

CNN reported on the 10th that "more people have died than the approximately 2,900 victims of the 9/11 attacks."

The spread of the virus remains uncontrolled in various countries.

Germany recorded nearly 600 deaths in a single day, the highest since the pandemic began, while Japan reported nearly 3,000 new cases on the 10th, with Tokyo alone setting a record of 602 cases.

In the United Kingdom, over 10,000 patients contracted COVID-19 while visiting hospitals for other treatments. Hospitals, where the strictest epidemic prevention measures should be in place, have become epicenters of COVID-19.

In South Korea, daily confirmed cases have remained in the 600s for three consecutive days. The health authorities stated that the third wave of COVID-19 is larger in scale and more prolonged compared to the first and second waves.

Especially in Seoul, the daily new confirmed cases have stayed in the 200s for nine consecutive days (from the 2nd: 262 → 295 → 235 → 254 → 244 → 213 → 262 → 251 → 250).

The Central Disease Control Headquarters analyzed the trend of confirmed cases over the past two weeks (November 27 to December 10) and found that the metropolitan area accounted for 70.2% of total cases, with Seoul at 39.1% and Gyeonggi Province at 26%.

In this regard, the Seoul Metropolitan Government stated, "If the spread of around 250 daily confirmed cases continues without being curbed, the collapse of the medical system and social sacrifices will be inevitable."

The health authorities warned, "Among COVID-19 confirmed patients aged 60 and over, 10% progress to severe conditions."

Jung Soon-gyun, Mayor of Gangnam-gu, said, "We have already experienced early in the COVID-19 crisis that adherence to daily prevention rules is the most reliable vaccine. I urge all residents to keep in mind that even a small lapse can lead to a large spread, and to strictly follow prevention measures such as wearing masks and social distancing."

Gangnam-gu Confirmed Cases Status

On the 11th, confirmed cases numbered 659 through 677 were diagnosed at the Gangnam-gu Public Health Center. Cases 659, 665?667, 669, 670, and 677 have unknown infection routes and are currently under epidemiological investigation.

Cases 660 through 664, 671, and 674?676 are family members of previously confirmed Gangnam-gu residents, while cases 668, 672, and 673 tested positive after contact with confirmed cases from other regions.

Status of Self-Quarantined Individuals

As of the 11th, Gangnam-gu manages 2,179 individuals in self-quarantine, including 1,200 overseas arrivals and 979 domestic contacts.

Number of Specimen Tests

The cumulative number of specimen tests conducted at the Gangnam-gu Public Health Center screening clinic is 101,961. On the 10th, among 1,706 tested individuals, 74 were overseas arrivals and 1,632 were domestic residents.

According to the 'Monetary and Credit Policy Report' recently submitted by the Bank of Korea to the National Assembly, it will take longer to recover from the employment shock caused by COVID-19 than from the 2008 financial crisis. In April this year, the number of employed persons was 26.5 million, a decrease of 1.02 million compared to February. From May to October, employment somewhat recovered to 26.84 million, but the increase was only 340,000.

Only about one-third of the 1.02 million lost jobs have been recovered, with significant decreases in face-to-face service sectors such as accommodation and food services, wholesale and retail, education, and temporary daily workers.

In this context, Gangnam-gu has been running the 'Small and Medium Enterprise Youth Internship' program since early this year, providing up to 1.2 million KRW per month in wages to SMEs hiring unemployed youth aged 15 to 34. As a result, a total of 211 additional hires were made across 180 companies.

Additionally, Gangnam-gu operates a 'Visiting Job Counseling Center' on the second floor of the Seoul Gangnam Driver's License Examination Office to assist job seekers and women with career interruptions. Residents are encouraged to show great interest and support.

Meanwhile, since the early stages of the crisis, Gangnam-gu has conducted proactive specimen testing based on the infectious disease response principle of 'early detection, early containment,' surpassing 100,000 tests as of the 10th.

This number exceeds that of Seoul Asan Medical Center, which conducted the most tests among 44 screening clinics in Seoul with 91,975 tests as of the 9th.

As of the 10th, Gangnam-gu's specimen tests totaled 101,961, the highest among 615 screening clinics nationwide. The positivity rate, calculated by confirmed cases relative to the previous day's tests, was 0.6%, about half the national rate of 1.2% (40,098 cases out of 3,237,849 tests).

With the recent sharp increase in confirmed cases, the number of self-quarantined individuals managed by Gangnam-gu has exceeded 2,000.

Gangnam-gu conducts health checks at least twice daily through dedicated public officials for self-quarantined individuals and performs additional testing for those released from quarantine.

Those who have not yet been tested after release are urged to visit the Gangnam-gu Public Health Center for retesting. The Gangnam-gu Smart Infectious Disease Management Center operates until 7 p.m. on weekends. Infectious diseases can be 'early contained' through 'early detection.'