Operation of 193 Heat Relief Centers in Seongdong-gu

Operating 193 Heat Relief Centers from May 20 to September 30 to Fully Prepare for This Summer's Heatwave... Designated Heat Relief Locations Include Senior Centers, Neighborhood Community Centers, Welfare Facilities, and Cultural Facilities like Chaekmaru

Before senior centers, which will resume operations from the 14th, are used as cooling shelters, air conditioning equipment is being disinfected and inspected.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jeong Won-oh) has prepared measures to protect the elderly vulnerable to heatwaves and has been operating 193 cooling shelters from the 20th of last month until September 30th to thoroughly prepare for this summer's heatwave.

The designated cooling shelter locations include senior centers, each neighborhood community center, welfare facilities, and cultural facilities such as Chaekmaru.

In particular, this year, with the reopening of 160 senior centers that had been closed since mid-November last year starting from the 14th of this month, these have been actively utilized as cooling shelters, significantly expanding the number of shelters from only 84 last year to 193.

The cooling shelters are equipped with air conditioners as well as items for quarantine rules such as visitor logs and fever checks. Each shelter has a designated manager and quarantine officer, with ventilation every two hours and maintenance of a 2-meter safety distance to prevent COVID-19 and ensure a comfortable and safe environment.

Additionally, a system for checking on vulnerable elderly and delivering heatwave information has been established. A disaster assistance team of 1,143 people, including public officials, community leaders, village nurses, and local autonomous disaster prevention groups, has been organized to focus on managing 1,900 elderly living alone in the area. They will regularly check on their health and safety through phone calls and visits and provide guidance on using the cooling shelters and heatwave preparedness actions.

Cooling shelters operate on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with senior centers open on weekdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. When a heatwave warning is issued, community centers and welfare centers extend their hours until 9 p.m., including holidays and weekends. Private lodging facilities such as safe accommodations operate at night from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next day.

Meanwhile, before the full reopening of senior centers on the 14th, the district disinfected all facilities and conducted pest control through a professional quarantine company. The district and neighborhood community center staff visited the senior centers in advance to check air conditioners and air purifiers and carefully prepared quarantine supplies such as hand sanitizers and thermometers to welcome the elderly.

Jeong Won-oh, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, said, “Even amid the COVID-19 situation, we have carefully reviewed heatwave response measures so that the elderly can spend a cool and healthy summer,” and urged, “Please use the cooling shelters following quarantine rules and overcome this summer healthily.”