Gyeonggi Province Takes Preemptive Measures Against COVID-19 Resurgence

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Kim Gap-dong] Gyeonggi Province has established an 'Infectious Disease Response Task Force' and is taking preemptive measures including patient trend monitoring and therapeutic supply management in response to increasing patients due to COVID-19 resurgence.

To this end, the province has organized a 'COVID-19 Infectious Disease Response Task Force' comprising 16 members from 4 divisions and 7 teams within the Public Health and Welfare Bureau, centered on Public Health Director Yoo Young-chul.

The Infectious Disease Response Task Force handles △patient trend analysis and hospitalized patient status △therapeutic supply management and inventory status △operation of fever clinics at 6 Gyeonggi Provincial Hospital branches and securing emergency treatment beds (Icheon Hospital and Anseong Hospital) △patient outbreak monitoring targeting vulnerable infectious disease facilities (nursing hospitals, nursing facilities, etc.) and promotion of prevention measures compliance. Subsequently, the task force plans to operate flexibly by expanding its scale according to outbreak situations.

Specifically, based on maintaining close cooperation between the province and cities/counties for cluster outbreaks at vulnerable facilities and bed securing, the province is conducting daily monitoring focused on COVID-19 patient trends including emergency room visitors at 9 regional emergency medical centers and 7 public hospitals, hospitalized patient status, and therapeutic supply status.

The province plans to operate evening and weekend fever clinics for specialized COVID-19 treatment at 6 hospitals including Suwon Hospital under Gyeonggi Provincial Hospital. At Gyeonggi Provincial Hospital's Icheon and Anseong hospitals designated as infectious disease management facilities, emergency treatment beds of 12 beds are being operated to prepare for situations of increased severe and critical hospitalized patients.

Additionally, considering the increasing trend of COVID-19 patients visiting emergency rooms, the province is conducting real-time monitoring of COVID-19 patient status visiting regional emergency medical centers and coordinating operations between emergency medical institutions to accommodate severe COVID-19 patients.

Furthermore, targeting vulnerable infectious disease facilities such as nursing hospitals and nursing facilities, the province is conducting thorough reporting and epidemiological investigations when 2 or more patients occur, and concentrating on prevention activities by strongly recommending mask wearing including infectious disease prevention measures at these facilities.

Public Health Director Yoo Young-chul stated, "We ask not only visitors and staff at vulnerable infectious disease facilities but also all residents of Gyeonggi Province to comply with infectious disease prevention measures such as indoor ventilation, hand washing, and mask wearing to cooperate in disease prevention."