Evaluating Mapo-gu's One-Year COVID-19 Response Journey... 'Fast' 'Fast'

Efforts to Prevent Infectious Disease Spread with Proactive Response from Early COVID-19 Outbreak...Nation's First Screening Clinic Equipped with Full-Section Negative Pressure Automatic Control for Rapid Testing...Nation's First On-Site Epidemiological Investigation Team for All Staff Praised for Quick Movement Tracking and Transparency

Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo District, touring the interior of the screening clinic

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The year 2020 was a year that showed the power of encouragement and solidarity as everyone around the world, including South Korea, faced chaos caused by COVID-19, coping with worries and fears together and overcoming hardships.

Mapo-gu (Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun) also took a meaningful opportunity to redefine the district’s role for the safety of its residents by responding quickly and proactively to the COVID-19 situation throughout the past year, thereby getting one step closer to its residents.

First, to respond immediately to the outbreak of COVID-19, the district formed the ‘Mapo-gu Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters’ in February last year, established a situation room and the nation’s first dedicated COVID-19 call center for autonomous districts at the Mapo-gu Public Health Center, and organized the ‘COVID-19 Disaster Management Situation Team’ to build a rapid response system.

This was a preemptive infectious disease preparedness measure based on the district’s administrative philosophy that ‘administration is not about reacting but about preparing in advance.’

Also, learning from the MERS incident, to prepare for various infectious diseases that could occur at any time, the district completed the nation’s first screening clinic equipped with a full-section negative pressure automatic control system in May last year, which had been prepared even before the COVID-19 outbreak, supporting residents to receive COVID-19 tests quickly and safely.

Since August last year, as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surged, increasing the confirmed patients’ movement paths and visited facilities that the district had to verify, the on-site epidemiological investigation team, which had been operated by team leaders of the Mapo-gu Public Health Center, was reorganized for the first time nationwide to include all employees.

After employees thoroughly acquired epidemiological investigation techniques and real case studies through online training, they were deployed in pairs for on-site investigations, greatly contributing to curbing the spread during the third wave.

Furthermore, since December last year, the district secured a hotel located in Seongsan-dong, Mapo-gu, as a residential treatment center, providing 56 rooms with a total capacity of 96 people, supporting confirmed patients to be isolated from the local community.

Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, “As Mapo-gu has devoted great effort to preventing the spread of COVID-19 over the past year, we will do our best to protect the health and safety of our residents by maintaining a flawless infectious disease surveillance system based on the experience and know-how we have acquired until the COVID-19 situation ends.”