Gwangju City Issues Administrative Order for Voluntary Reporting of Unauthorized Educational and Boarding Facilities with Five or More People

Mayor Lee Yong-seop Announces Results of COVID-19 Public-Private Joint Countermeasures Committee Meeting

On the afternoon of the 27th, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, held an online briefing on COVID-19 with members of the public-private joint countermeasures committee at the city hall briefing room. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City issued an administrative order on the 27th requiring unauthorized educational facilities with five or more people and all dormitory facilities with five or more people to voluntarily report and undergo inspections.

In the Gwangju area, on the 26th, 100 COVID-19 cases were confirmed at the unauthorized educational facility Gwangju TCS International School (operated by Hanmaeum Church), and on the same day, 9 additional cases occurred at the same facility.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop of Gwangju announced the results of the COVID-19 Public-Private Joint Countermeasure Committee meeting at 11:30 a.m. that day.

Mayor Lee stated, “As a result of COVID-19 tests on 135 people including students and staff at the unauthorized educational facility Gwangju TCS International School, 77 students, 25 teachers and staff, and 7 Hanmaeum Church members were confirmed to be infected with COVID-19.”

He continued, “Regarding the confirmed cases at Gwangju TCS International School, after consultation with the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, 40 confirmed patients will be transferred this afternoon to the Naju Residential Treatment Center in Jeonnam, and 30 each to the Asan Central Residential Treatment Center and Asan Chungcheong Residential Treatment Center in Chungnam,” adding, “For future confirmed cases, we will also coordinate with the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters to promptly and safely isolate them to prevent the spread of infection in the community.”

Gwangju City has identified 10 unauthorized religious-related educational facilities in the Gwangju area so far, with 3 operating in dormitory form and 7 in non-dormitory form. Among these 10, 4 are related to the IM Mission.

The city has first completed full testing by identifying the student and staff lists for the 4 IM Mission-related facilities (2 dormitory, 2 non-dormitory), and among the other 6 facilities (1 dormitory, 5 non-dormitory), full testing has been completed for the one dormitory facility.

For the 5 non-dormitory facilities, an “administrative order for full testing” was issued at 12 noon that day to ensure rapid testing.

The city confirmed that teachers affiliated with the IM Mission are personally participating as special activity teachers at daycare centers, and issued an emergency closure administrative order for 1,072 daycare centers in Gwangju from the 28th to the 14th of next month.

During the closure period, daycare teachers will continue to report to work normally to provide emergency childcare services.

Mayor Lee said, “It is most important now to find the second and third IM facilities,” and added, “Regardless of religious affiliation, unauthorized educational facilities with five or more people and dormitory facilities with five or more people (including foreign resident facilities) must voluntarily report to the local district health center and undergo testing as per the administrative order.”

He also emphasized, “It has been confirmed that there are many unauthorized alternative schools and educational facilities operating regardless of the related religion,” and stated, “In this regard, our city will maintain close cooperation with the five autonomous districts, Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, and Gwangju Police Agency to conduct thorough investigations and testing of unauthorized facilities to ensure no blind spots in quarantine measures and to block the spread of local infections.”