Kim Sang-jo: "Securing Maximum Public Mask Supply... Ensuring It Reaches the Hands of the People"

Kim Sang-jo, Chief of Policy at the Blue House, is attending the COVID-19 response meeting of the ruling party, government, and the Blue House held at the National Assembly on the 4th, delivering opening remarks. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporters Kang Nahum and Jeon Jinyoung] Kim Sangjo, Chief of the Blue House Policy Office, stated on the 4th regarding the 'mask crisis' arising from the surge in confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), "We will secure the maximum amount of public distribution and prepare supplementary measures to ensure masks are distributed more fairly to the public."

At the first COVID-19 response meeting between the ruling party, government, and Blue House held in the Democratic Party representative meeting room at the National Assembly, Kim said, "The reality is that the daily production of 10 million masks cannot keep up with the daily demand of over 30 million."

Kim added, "We plan to significantly increase public sales at pharmacies through the Drug Utilization Review (DUR) system, which can check how many masks each citizen has purchased," and said, "The government will establish the best system so that a certain quantity of masks can definitely be purchased at pharmacies."

He said, "Yesterday, there was a presidential order to convert all government organizations into a 24-hour emergency situation room system," and added, "We will mobilize all available resources to thoroughly engage in quarantine measures to protect public health, while also making every effort to support the recovery of the livelihood economy."

Kim emphasized, "The supplementary budget (chugyeong) is a matter of timing," urging the political circles to swiftly pass the supplementary budget. He said, "This supplementary budget is larger than the scale of MERS and focuses on small business owners, self-employed individuals, and the Daegu and Gyeongbuk regions, which have suffered the greatest damage," and earnestly requested, "I sincerely ask that the supplementary budget bill be processed within the session of the February extraordinary National Assembly."

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