‘Corona Battle’ Gwangju Nam-gu Officer, Tearful Presidential Commendation

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Kang Gyu-jeong, an administrative officer at Nam-gu Office in Gwangju Metropolitan City, received the Presidential Citation for his dedication to preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the local community.

According to Nam-gu on the 4th, Kang Gyu-jeong (Grade 6), who works in the Infectious Disease Control Division, has been overseeing the emergency quarantine response center since February 2020, the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak.

He commuted at dawn before daybreak and often left work well past midnight for about 820 days straight.

The tasks he took charge of included tracking the movement routes and contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases, as well as monitoring overseas arrivals to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

It is estimated that over 72,547 confirmed cases have been handled through Kang’s efforts.

When including residents who had contact with confirmed cases and those whose movement paths overlapped, the number is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.

In fact, until February 9th, when the tracking of COVID-19 movement routes was suspended, Kang managed a cumulative total of 196,303 residents under self-quarantine, and the number of overseas arrivals monitored reached 3,270.

Kang said, “Last December, when the Omicron variant caused a surge in cases, there were many nights I cried and couldn’t sleep. My health deteriorated significantly, but as a public official, I had to do my best in the duties assigned to me. Without a sense of duty, I wouldn’t have come this far.”

Additionally, to protect residents vulnerable to COVID-19, he visited nursing hospitals, nursing facilities, day and night care centers, and child welfare facilities within the district, conducting hundreds of thousands of proactive COVID-19 tests and providing supplies to minimize the inconvenience of those in self-quarantine, actively working on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.

Kang said, “I feel very sorry to my family for not being able to take care of them as a mother and wife, and I have always been grateful to my colleagues who worked hard with me late into the night. I want to share the honor of receiving the Presidential Citation with my beloved family and colleagues.”