'Guro Call Center' Staff Testing in Final Stage... Most Employees on 7th-9th Floors Test 'Negative'

The area around Korea Building in Guro-gu, Seoul, where a COVID-19 cluster infection occurred on the 12th, remains quiet even during rush hour. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] As of the morning of the 12th, the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) related to the call center inside the Korea Building in Guro-gu, Seoul, has been counted at 102. This is the result of investigating most of the approximately 960 people, including call center employees located on the 11th floor, call center employees on the 7th to 9th floors, and officetel residents.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon stated at a briefing that "the confirmed cases related to the Korea Building cluster outbreak have been counted as 71 in Seoul, 14 in Gyeonggi, and 17 in Incheon," adding, "Most of the confirmed cases are employees working on the 11th floor, but two employees on the 9th and 10th floors were confirmed overnight."

A(34, male), a resident of Incheon who was confirmed positive on this day, was identified as a 10th-floor employee unrelated to the call center. B(27, female), residing in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, also tested positive. B is known to be a contact of a confirmed call center employee. Earlier, Incheon city announced that all 69 Incheon residents among the call center employees on the 7th to 9th floors tested negative after specimen tests were conducted based on the secured list.

Seoul city plans to complete testing for all call center employees within the day. Over 200 officetel residents all tested negative.

On this day, Seoul city announced that the Korea Building, where the call center is located, and the surrounding area will be designated as a "Special Infectious Disease Support Zone" at the Seoul city level. Mayor Park emphasized, "The cluster infection case at the Korea Building is a critical matter that will determine whether the additional spread of COVID-19 can be prevented or not," and added, "We have decided to designate the Korea Building and its surrounding area as a Special Infectious Disease Support Zone at the Seoul city level to concentrate human and material resources and resolve the issue promptly."

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