Pyeongtaek City Implements Comprehensive Plan for Chuseok Holiday

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Pyeongtaek City announced that it will implement the "2020 Chuseok Holiday Comprehensive Plan" from the 21st through next month's 4th.

For the Chuseok holiday, the city plans to concentrate all administrative efforts on creating an atmosphere of restraint on travel, conducting thorough quarantine activities, and stabilizing people's livelihoods by implementing key measures in various sectors including COVID-19 prevention and containment. The goal is to ensure residents enjoy a "safe and comfortable" holiday period.

The city has posted promotional banners at multi-use facilities and major roadsides encouraging nationwide travel restraint during the holiday period. While requesting participation from citizens and organizations and agencies, the city will further strengthen COVID-19 quarantine systems at multi-use facilities and other locations.

The city will also operate a comprehensive situation room composed of 10 divisions including an overall coordination team, disaster response, medical care and quarantine, livelihood protection, sanitation, roads, and traffic measures. It will prioritize residents' safety and promptly handle resident inconveniences and complaints.

Pyeongtaek and Songtan Public Health Centers will operate screening clinics from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the Chuseok holiday period and will organize additional emergency duty units to maintain rapid response systems in preparation for COVID-19 patient occurrences. Promotion of COVID-19 prevention quarantine guidelines will also be strengthened. The centers will continuously monitor the health of those in self-isolation and any unauthorized departures while strengthening quarantine measures at multi-use facilities.

To stabilize prices for Chuseok holiday essentials, the city will regularly check price trends of popular items and intensively crack down on violations including incorrect country-of-origin labeling and unfair trading practices. To stabilize the livelihood of the common people struggling due to prolonged social distancing, including self-employed and small business owners, the city plans to actively promote sales of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products through online channels and expand the sale of local currency and Onnuri gift certificates.

For transportation measures to provide safe and convenient travel for citizens using public transportation, the city will operate a special traffic measures team for Chuseok and conduct disinfection once daily at public bus terminals during the holiday period. Memorial facilities will implement a daily visitor capacity reservation system and operate an online memorial service system.

The disaster and safety situation room will operate 24 hours to prevent various disasters and accidents and enable rapid response in emergency situations. Special inspections will be conducted to establish proper conduct for civil servants during the Chuseok holiday.

In previous years, the city visited social welfare facilities to deliver comfort items to those in need in the local area. However, this year direct visits to facilities are difficult due to COVID-19, so non-face-to-face comfort visits will be conducted through an online meeting using Zoom.

Mayor Jung Jang-seon stated, "It is regrettable and unfortunate to recommend travel restraint during the Chuseok holiday for many people. However, for this holiday, we strongly recommend refraining from visits to hometowns, relatives, or travel and resting at home for the health of yourself and your family, and we hope for your cooperation in adhering to quarantine guidelines and maintaining social distancing."