Gyeonggi Province Tests 60 Long-term Care Hospitals in Suwon, Bucheon and Other Cities for COVID-19

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province conducted COVID-19 screening tests on all 60 long-term care hospitals in four cities—Suwon, Bucheon, Pyeongtaek, and Pocheon—from May 18 to 28 to prevent cluster infections at multi-use facilities. All test results came back negative.

The testing was conducted to preemptively address the risk of cluster infections at long-term care hospitals, which have many high-risk patients, as sporadic cluster infections have continued to occur at hospitals, churches, clubs and other facilities throughout the region following the Itaewon club outbreak.

Testing was performed at all 60 long-term care hospitals in four cities—Suwon, Bucheon, Pyeongtaek, and Pocheon—among seven cities in the province where cluster infections have occurred. A total of 7,781 people were sampled, including workers, caregivers, and patients newly admitted within the past two weeks, using a pooling testing technique.

The pooling testing technique is conducted on asymptomatic individuals by mixing samples from 10 people into one sample for diagnosis. Full retesting is only conducted when the mixed sample tests positive. If negative, retesting is unnecessary, allowing multiple tests to be completed at once and enabling rapid testing.

For the three cities of Seongnam, Uijeongbu, and Gunpo excluded among the seven cities, 3,979 people from all 30 long-term care hospitals were prioritized for testing in April according to a Ministry of Health and Welfare plan, and all received negative results.

Gyeonggi Province plans to continue on-site inspections through daily reporting from long-term care hospitals and, in light of the recent Coupang logistics center cluster infection in Bucheon, will fully subsidize pooling testing costs for general companies that require COVID-19 testing, pledging to do its utmost to prevent the spread of COVID-19 throughout the province.