Gyeonggi Province Releases Map Service for Respiratory Care Medical Institutions in Response to Omicron

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] If you need to take a COVID-19 rapid antigen test but don't know which hospital near your home provides it, you can visit the Gyeonggi Province website.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 20th that it has released map services for respiratory care clinics and designated respiratory care medical institutions throughout the province on the Gyeonggi Province Government website (gg.go.kr) and the Gyeonggi Data Dream public data portal (data.gg.go.kr).

Since the early stages of COVID-19 in 2020, the province has been opening public data necessary for COVID-19 infection prevention and response, including screening clinics and COVID-19 vaccination centers.

With increased demand for hospital information due to the recent spread of Omicron, the province explained that it has additionally released two types of data: respiratory care clinics and designated respiratory care medical institutions.

The two types of data provide information on 114 respiratory care clinics and 1,113 designated respiratory care medical institutions (as of the 18th) that are capable of rapid antigen tests and non-face-to-face diagnosis and treatment, including medical institution name, address, contact information, and availability of rapid antigen tests (RAT).

The data is provided along with map services for easy location verification. Additionally, utilizing the open application programming interface (Open API, an interface that allows users to develop applications and services independently) provided by the public data portal (data.go.kr) and data provided by the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, information on designation and revocation of medical institutions is reflected in real time, updated on a 1-2 day basis.

Jeon Seung-hyun, Director of the Data Policy Division, said, "As COVID-19 response is shifting due to the Omicron variant, we will do our best to enable residents to prepare for COVID-19 easily and conveniently by providing diverse public data."