Gyeonggi Health and Environment Institute Achieves 'Success' in Blocking COVID-19... Conducts 19,148 Tests

Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] It has been revealed that the Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment conducted over 20,000 COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

The Institute announced that since the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the province on January 26, it has conducted 19,148 COVID-19 diagnostic tests as of 9 a.m. on the 6th of this month. This averages to about 200 tests per day.

Since January 24, the Institute has organized the "COVID-19 Laboratory Testing Emergency Response Team" and has been operating 24-hour emergency shifts day and night.

Out of the 19,148 tests, 18,956 were negative, 177 were positive, and 15 cases remain undetermined.

The Institute is particularly recognized for being the first among nationwide health and environment research institutes to apply the COVID-19 specimen pooling test method jointly developed by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine, playing a role in preventing the regional spread of COVID-19.

Pooling tests differ from the conventional method of testing one person's specimen at a time by testing specimens from 5 to 10 people simultaneously. If the entire group tests negative, they pass as is; if positive, only the specific group undergoes individual testing. This method speeds up diagnosis by about 50% on average compared to individual testing.

In fact, the Institute conducted pooling tests on 3,979 caregivers, workers, and inpatients at 30 nursing hospitals in the province, including Gunpo City (Hyosarang Nursing Home) and Uijeongbu City (St. Mary's Hospital), where cluster outbreaks occurred, confirming all were negative.

Yoon Mi-hye, director of the Gyeonggi-do Institute of Health and Environment, stated, "Since the end of January, we have responded by utilizing all available personnel and equipment at the institute for COVID-19 diagnostic testing," and emphasized, "We will continue testing centered on the emergency response team to ensure the safety of residents until treatments and vaccines are developed and COVID-19 is eradicated."

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