Yongin City to Strictly Manage Religious, Multi-use, and Assembly Facilities

Yongin City Hall

[Asia Economy (Yongin) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Yongin City in Gyeonggi Province is taking strict measures by assigning dedicated personnel to religious, multi-use, and gathering facilities where there is concern about COVID-19 cluster infections.

Yongin City first introduced a 'departmental responsibility system' to prevent cluster infections in religious facilities, mobilizing 35 teams of responsible officers composed of 699 people from 78 departments, with each public official assigned to manage one church.

They visit the 699 churches in the area weekly in advance to investigate whether collective worship services are held and recommend switching to online or home worship. For churches holding Sunday collective worship, they provide on-site guidance to ensure compliance with infection prevention rules.

Churches holding collective worship must follow rules such as wearing masks, checking symptoms like fever, using hand sanitizer, disinfecting inside and outside before and after worship, maintaining a certain distance between attendees, prohibiting meal provision, and keeping attendance records.

For managing multi-use facilities such as PC rooms and karaoke rooms, the city organized 145 teams of responsible officers in 30 groups across three district offices, working in pairs to conduct focused inspections of 722 karaoke rooms, PC rooms, and similar establishments.

The city will visit each business by the 23rd, the guidance period, to check compliance with the checklist, and conduct on-site inspections from the 24th of this month to the 6th of next month during the intensive inspection period.

Earlier, Gyeonggi Province issued an administrative order on the 18th restricting close contact use of multi-use facilities such as PC rooms and karaoke rooms, which are considered high-risk for infection.

Accordingly, these businesses must comply with 18 major checklists presented by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, including designating an infection control officer, maintaining user logs, and requiring all users and staff to wear masks.

Failure to comply may result in fines up to 3 million won under the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, business suspension, and liability for quarantine or treatment costs if confirmed cases occur due to violations.

Previously, the city checked these businesses for self-quarantine measures and supported disinfection by investing disaster management funds.

The city also takes measures equivalent to quasi-Koch levels for facilities vulnerable to infectious diseases, such as residential facilities for the disabled and elderly nursing homes.

According to the city, 46 facilities including residential facilities for the disabled, welfare centers, and day care centers are continuously monitored by designated public officials according to facility type.

Baek Gun-gi, Mayor of Yongin City, said, "Although the number of confirmed cases is decreasing nationwide, cluster infection cases continue to occur, which is concerning," and emphasized, "We must overcome COVID-19 through thorough management that may seem excessive but is practical and realistic."

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