Chungnam Expands COVID-19 Response Organization from '1 Team' to '1 Department and 3 Teams'

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Chungnam Provincial Institute of Health and Environment will expand its organization and workforce to strengthen its response capabilities against the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

According to the Provincial Institute of Health and Environment on the 21st, recently, Chungnam has seen a continuous increase in the number of tests due to the third wave of COVID-19 and local cluster infection incidents. Last year, the number of tests conducted was about 90,000, with an average of approximately 1,500 tests per day in December alone.

Reflecting this situation, the Provincial Institute of Health and Environment will expand from the existing single infectious disease testing team to three teams within the Infectious Disease Research Department and will additionally hire 12 new personnel.

First, the Infectious Disease Research Department will be composed of the Infectious Disease Testing Team, the Emerging Disease Testing Team, and the Disease Investigation Team. Furthermore, the response personnel will be deployed directly to the field after receiving training related to COVID-19 testing.

The Infectious Disease Research Department will operate as emergency infectious disease response teams A, B, and C during emergencies, and once COVID-19 is eradicated, each team will contribute to infectious disease response according to their operational characteristics.

A representative of the Provincial Institute of Health and Environment said, “The expansion and reorganization of dedicated COVID-19 personnel and teams will help alleviate the accumulated fatigue and excessive workload of researchers in the field,” adding, “This will serve as a foundation for the Provincial Institute of Health and Environment to actively conduct diagnosis and research.”

Meanwhile, the Provincial Institute of Health and Environment is the only specialized infectious disease research institution in the region equipped with a Biosafety Level 3 laboratory, playing a final diagnostic role not only for COVID-19 but also for legally designated infectious diseases such as AIDS occurring in the region.

After COVID-19 was confirmed as an infectious disease in Korea last year, the institute also established and operated a 24-hour continuous testing system.