Mayor Yom Tae-young Requests Government Accelerate Vaccine Inoculation Timeline for Childcare Workers

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Mayor Yom Tae-young of Suwon requested on the 16th that the government accelerate the vaccine inoculation timeline for kindergarten and childcare workers as well as first and second-grade elementary school teachers to April.

Mayor Yom, who participated online in the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters video conference held at the Government Seoul Building under the direction of Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, stated: "Recently, cluster infections of COVID-19 have been occurring repeatedly in childcare facilities and kindergartens. If the vaccine inoculation timeline for childcare and kindergarten workers and first and second-grade elementary school teachers, which is scheduled for June, is accelerated, it will help suppress the spread of COVID-19."

The video conference brought together Mayor Yom Tae-young and heads of 56 basic municipal governments in the Seoul metropolitan area to discuss enhanced special quarantine measures in the capital region. This was the first time that heads of basic municipal governments have spoken at a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters video conference.

Mayor Yom Tae-young further stated: "If an administrative order is issued requiring all childcare workers to undergo PCR (nasopharyngeal polymerase chain reaction) testing once a week, it will greatly help prevent cluster infections at childcare facilities. A social atmosphere must be created in which childcare teachers do not report to work if they have any symptoms whatsoever." He added: "The government must actively promote 'refraining from work if symptomatic.'"

He also noted: "There are not a few cases in which additional infections occur because people do not properly self-isolate while waiting for test results after diagnostic testing. Please reflect in government guidelines the mandate that people who undergo diagnostic testing must self-isolate while waiting for their results."

During the meeting, starting with Mayor Yom, about ten heads of basic municipal governments proposed COVID-19 quarantine measures to the government.

Mayor Yom Tae-young assessed: "Over the past year or so, basic municipal governments throughout the nation have established quarantine policies suited to regional characteristics and applied them to COVID-19 response efforts. The effective COVID-19 response policies of basic municipal governments have collectively formed 'K-quarantine.'"