Osan City Conducts Intensive Inspections on Compliance with Gathering Bans and Provides Support for Affected Businesses

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] On the 23rd, Osan City announced that since June, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it has been conducting intensive crackdowns on multi-use facilities such as entertainment establishments that face high risk of cluster infections, while simultaneously implementing various support measures for affected small business owners.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the city began with a recommendation to suspend operations of entertainment facilities (club-type entertainment bars) in March, followed by an administrative order prohibiting gatherings at entertainment bars in May, and subsequently issued administrative orders prohibiting all entertainment facilities (room salons and entertainment bars) from operating.

Starting in June, the city formed joint inspection teams composed of city officials and police, conducting intensive checks on compliance with the administrative orders on a total of 167 establishments, including 130 entertainment bars and 37 room salons, by posting notices of administrative orders prohibiting gatherings at multi-use facilities.

The joint inspection teams conducted inspections even on weekends and did their best in COVID-19 prevention activities and guidance inspections, but a total of 3 establishments were found operating in violation of the gathering ban administrative order and were referred for prosecution, leaving some disappointment.

While conducting intensive crackdowns, the city also prepared support measures to minimize damages to business owners due to the gathering ban administrative orders.

In June, as the gathering ban administrative orders were repeatedly extended due to the prolonged COVID-19 crisis, the city held the 'Osan City Multi-use Facility Gathering Ban Administrative Order Relief Deliberation Committee' and took measures allowing establishments that committed to compliance with management conditions to resume operations conditionally.

Additionally, on the 12th, the city decided to provide special business operation funds of up to 1 million won to small business owners who suffered damages from being unable to operate due to the gathering ban administrative orders related to COVID-19.

Moreover, centered on the city's Agricultural Products and Food Sanitation Division staff, the city conducted education on how to operate the electronic entry/exit register (KI-pass) by visiting multi-use facilities and directly installed the program, providing support activities to enable operations while complying with management conditions.

A city official stated, "To overcome COVID-19, the participation of multi-use facility managers and citizens in using electronic entry/exit registers, maintaining written sign-in sheets, and making mask-wearing a daily practice is absolutely necessary," and added, "To prevent the spread of COVID-19, we will continue to conduct inspections of high-risk multi-use facilities."