Governor Lee Jae-myung's Two Proposals to Prime Minister Jeong Regarding 'Novel Coronavirus' What Are They?

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-myung, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, proposed to the government to 'gradually' disclose detailed information about confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and to mandate coronavirus testing for pneumonia inpatients.

On the 8th, Lee introduced to Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, who visited the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, the local residents' reactions to the announcement of the movement path of patient number 19 in Gyeonggi Province. He said, "They only announced that the confirmed patient went to his parents' house in Bundang, Seongnam, but did not disclose which neighborhood or apartment, so the entire Bundang is paralyzed," and suggested, "It is necessary to adopt a stepwise detailed information disclosure method that accurately releases information but does not inform the public of the exact building and unit number, providing more detailed information the closer one is to the confirmed patient."

He cited the MERS outbreak in 2015 when he was mayor of Seongnam as an example.

Lee said, "During my tenure as mayor of Seongnam, when a MERS confirmed case occurred, we disclosed the patient's residential apartment complex through SNS, then informed only the residents of that apartment about which building the patient lived in, and further notified only the residents of that building about the exact unit number, implementing stepwise infectious disease information disclosure measures to alleviate unnecessary anxiety."

Lee also raised the necessity of coronavirus testing for pneumonia inpatients.

He said, "Gyeonggi Province is conducting a full survey, and among those recently diagnosed with pneumonia, doctors suspect some cases, so why not test them? There are cases of confirmed infections through unknown routes, so even if it takes time and cost, if we conduct a full survey and testing based on doctors' judgment, we can prevent missing coronavirus patients," he emphasized.

In response, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said, "I will convey the proposal at a meeting with relevant ministers to ensure thorough review. It will not just be heard and ended," and added, "Gyeonggi Province is very proactive and doing its best in responding to the novel coronavirus, and I express my gratitude to Governor Lee Jae-myung and all public officials."

Prime Minister Chung particularly promised, "Gyeonggi Province is responding preemptively by supporting disaster management funds, securing negative pressure beds, expanding epidemiological investigators, and also paying attention to and supporting economic issues. The Prime Minister's Office will strive to ensure that Gyeonggi Province's exemplary cases are well disseminated to other local governments."

On the same day, Prime Minister Chung and Governor Lee moved together to Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Suwon Hospital, toured the negative pressure ward and isolation rooms, and encouraged the staff.

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