At the Forefront of the COVID War: 'Public Officials'... Seoul Districts' 'PR Officers' Working Hard

During the COVID-19 battle, promotion staff were extremely busy sharing information by posting confirmed patients' movements on blogs and SNS, often working until 11 PM without weekends... Public awareness of civil servants' efforts has increased amid this COVID-19 war.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] "In my 15 years of public relations work, I don't think I've ever had a time this difficult."

Mr. C, head of the public relations team in a district of Seoul, said this to a reporter on the 20th. He said he had been extremely busy recently as dozens of COVID-19 cases occurred in the area.

He said, "Working until 11 p.m. without weekends was normal."

This was because when a COVID-19 case was confirmed, the movement routes had to be posted on the district office website.

Once posted, calls from residents flooded in. If the information was detailed, restaurants and others would cause a commotion; if it was relatively vague, residents would get upset.

It is understood that this is because of differing interests, but the public relations officer caught in the middle faces such urgent situations that they can barely breathe.

Public relations officials are going through a tougher time than ever while fighting this COVID-19 war.

When a COVID-19 case occurs in an area, information must be shared immediately through the website, blog, and other SNS channels.

Another district public relations manager, Mr. K, said that when the first confirmed case appeared in the area and the movement routes were posted, more than 170,000 people?over half the population?accessed the website, showing intense interest.

He said, "When the first confirmed case occurred and the information was sent via SNS, access rapidly increased, and there were about 400 comments, showing strong interest."

Another district public relations manager, Mr. S, said, "There is confusion because each district marks confirmed cases' movement routes differently," adding, "Our district discloses general movement routes rather than specific locations according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) regulations."

He explained that revealing too detailed movement routes causes too much damage.

Because of this interest, the public relations team could not afford to relax their vigilance.

Although the health center handles the practical work such as confirming COVID-19 cases, ultimately it is the public relations team’s role to inform residents, citizens, and the entire nation.

Thus, public relations work has been recognized as playing a more important role than ever in this COVID-19 war.

Mr. L, a public relations manager of a district, said, "I think public relations work has been recognized as more important than ever while fighting this COVID-19 war."

Especially, South Korea, an IT-advanced country, has been evaluated as a model case in fighting COVID-19, partly because its SNS system is well established.

From apps that appeared immediately after COVID-19 cases were confirmed to apps showing pharmacy mask availability during the public mask distribution, Korea’s advanced SNS system has greatly contributed to improving rapid response capabilities through information sharing.

Amid this, the crisis of fighting the coronavirus has made the resilience of the public servant organization palpable.

Director Jung Eun-kyung of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, who briefs daily on COVID-19 cases, has shown a much more haggard appearance than at the beginning, giving the public a new perception of public officials.

An official said, "Going through this COVID-19 war, people can understand how hard public servants are working."

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