Daejeon City Provides 'COVID-19 Emergency Care' Support for Elderly, Disabled, and Children

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City announced on the 9th that it will promote the ‘COVID-19 Emergency Care Project’ to support vulnerable groups such as local elderly, disabled, and children from falling into blind spots in care due to COVID-19.

The emergency care project will be carried out by the City Social Service Agency. The agency will form an in-house emergency care support team, establish its own project plan, and after preliminary preparations such as budget allocation, will begin full-scale operation starting next month.

This project is a Ministry of Health and Welfare policy initiative and will be implemented until June. The main contents of the project are divided into the Social Service Agency’s emergency care project and the recruitment and support project for care personnel at medical institutions.

The in-house emergency care is aimed at vulnerable groups such as elderly, disabled, and children who have had their existing care services interrupted due to COVID-19 or who are in self-quarantine alone, as well as social welfare facilities where care gaps have occurred due to confirmed cases among workers.

Applications can be made from this month through local district community service centers, public health centers, and related organizations (facilities). The agency will be responsible for selecting recipients, training and deploying care personnel, providing services, and monitoring the project.

The recruitment and support of care personnel at medical institutions is a project to recruit and train emergency care personnel (caregivers, nursing assistants) at COVID-19 treatment hospitals and residential treatment centers for elderly people who have tested positive. After training, the list of graduates will be provided to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Central Accident Response Headquarters.

Heo Tae-jeong, Mayor of Daejeon, said, “We will minimize care gaps so that vulnerable groups such as local elderly, disabled, and children who need care do not fall into blind spots during the COVID-19 situation,” and added, “The city plans to flexibly adjust and operate the scale, duration, and personnel of related projects according to the COVID-19 situation in the future.”