Seongnam City Temporarily Closes 391 Senior Welfare Facilities Including Senior Centers

[Asia Economy (Seongnam) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province has temporarily closed 391 elderly facilities starting from the 3rd to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection.

The targeted facilities include 6 senior welfare centers used by an average of 12,820 people daily and all 385 senior citizen centers with 13,924 members.

A Seongnam city official explained, "This measure is to protect the safety of the elderly, who are vulnerable to infectious diseases, and the citizens using the facilities, and to prevent the local inflow of the novel coronavirus."

These facilities will suspend operations until the coronavirus situation subsides. Additionally, the city will conduct thorough disinfection of these elderly facilities and 11 shuttle buses during the closure period.

The city also decided to temporarily suspend 12 cafes and 6 cafeterias operated under the senior job program. Furthermore, temporary closures are being considered for 20 multipurpose welfare centers and 28 free senior cafeterias.

For 311 long-term care institutions and facilities for the elderly operated by the private sector, monitoring will be strengthened starting from the 1st.

The city plans to prohibit visits from residents' families if the infectious disease crisis alert level, currently at 'caution,' is raised to 'serious.'

As of today, there are 15 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection in South Korea. There are no cases in the Seongnam area.

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