Seoul District Office Public Relations Manager and Media Team Leader Struggle to Cope with COVID-19 Coverage 'Almost Collapsed...'

Jongno-gu's Yu Jae-il, Head of Public Relations and IT, Seongdong-gu's Lee Seon-ha, Jungnang-gu's Woo Jin-bun, and Gwanak-gu's Jeong Gyeong-ju, Heads of Media Teams, Strained Their Voices and Health While Handling the Flood of COVID-19 Coverage After Confirmed Cases Emerged

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] As more than a month has passed since the outbreak of COVID-19 in South Korea, with 100 new confirmed cases added on the 21st bringing the total to 204, Seoul district government officials are on the verge of collapse due to media response duties.

In particular, frontline officials at district public health centers are losing sleep while caring for suspected COVID-19 patients on site.

Meanwhile, public relations managers and media team leaders in Seoul districts, who serve as the official media contact points, become the focus of intense media coverage from hundreds of outlets whenever the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announces confirmed cases in their districts.

When the KDCA releases basic information about confirmed COVID-19 cases, the media calls the district media teams with detailed questions.

However, these district media teams often do not know specific details, forcing them to give the same answers hundreds of times, causing great distress.

On the 20th, after the KDCA announced that four COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Jongno-gu, Public Relations and IT Manager Yoo Jae-il reportedly received about 200 phone calls.

Reporters especially asked questions like “What are the movement paths of confirmed patient number **? Where were they infected?” causing him considerable difficulty in responding.

Manager Yoo said, “I think I received hundreds of calls in just one day,” adding, “It’s difficult to answer because even we don’t know the specific details.”

On the 19th, when the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Seongdong-gu, Media Team Leader Lee Seon-ha lost her voice from handling the flood of reporters.

Assistant Jung Mi-rang said, “Team Leader Lee’s voice was hoarse to the point she couldn’t speak from continuously answering calls.”

On the 20th, Media Team Leader Woo Jin-boon of Jungnang-gu was almost unable to speak during a phone interview due to exhaustion.

Team Leader Woo said, “Since the initial confirmed case in Jungnang-gu was isolated and hospitalized at Seoul Medical Center, after about a month, my throat condition is terrible.”

On the 17th, Gwanak-gu Media Team Leader Jeong Gyeong-ju suffered from physical exhaustion responding to media inquiries about whether a local resident who died after returning from Wuhan, China, was a COVID-19 case.

The KDCA later confirmed that the deceased was not related to COVID-19, calming the situation somewhat.

As such, with this national-scale major incident, not only the central government but also local government public relations personnel are having a very hard time.

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