Mayor Park Won-soon: "New Coronavirus Infection Reports Can Use '120' Call Center"

1399 High Call Volume Causes Connection Issues
120 Foreign Language Service Also Available, Useful
One-on-One Checks Through Chatdong Visiting Nurses
Daily Public Situation Briefing Begins
"Special Grants Will Be Provided to District Offices"

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon greets participants by touching elbows at the Seoul Metropolitan Government-District Joint Comprehensive Countermeasures Meeting for COVID-19 held at Seoul City Hall on the 29th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] Reporting and consultation related to the novel coronavirus infection (Wuhan pneumonia) will also be available through the 'Dasan Call Center (120)'.

On the 29th, at a meeting held at City Hall with the heads of 25 district offices to discuss measures related to the novel coronavirus infection, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said, "The Ministry of Health and Welfare's 1399 hotline is overwhelmed with calls, making it difficult to connect," and added, "We plan to operate a system centered on our city's Dasan 120 from now on."

He continued, "We want to prepare in advance for the situation escalating to a serious stage," emphasizing, "120 also offers foreign language services, which makes it more useful."

Mayor Park also stated, "Areas with a high population of Chinese residents or many Chinese tourists should be intensively monitored," and added, "It would be good to use the visiting nurses from 'Chat-dong' to conduct one-on-one checks without exception."

Mayor Park said, "Starting tomorrow (the 30th), we plan to begin daily briefings for citizens," and stressed, "It is important to prevent the indiscriminate spread of unfounded information." Seoul City plans to deliver updates daily at 2 p.m. after the countermeasure meetings through various channels such as YouTube and social networking services (SNS).

Meanwhile, Mayor Park requested, "There are reports that Wuhan pneumonia originated from the trade of wild animals," and asked, "If wild animals are being traded for food consumption, please closely monitor and temporarily shut down such activities." He promised, "We will fully support this using the disaster management fund," and added, "I will sign the special grant documents (to support district offices) within today."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.