Mayor Park Won-soon "We Must Prepare for a Second Wave of COVID-19"... Promoting the Establishment of a 'Public Medical School'

Seoul City Proposes Standard Quarantine Model for the 'Post-Corona Era'
Establishment of Infectious Disease Specialized Centers and Selection and Operation of Target Groups for Preemptive Testing

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government has decided to establish a response infrastructure and system at the local government level in preparation for the resurgence of infectious diseases such as the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). To strengthen public medical services for infectious disease response, it will also promote the expansion of public medical personnel, including the establishment of a public medical school.

On the 20th, at a briefing related to COVID-19, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said, "One of the success factors in the COVID-19 quarantine was that when local governments identified the situation on the ground and devised countermeasures, the central government actively accepted and quickly nationalized them," adding, "We will build a Seoul-type standard quarantine model by making the infectious disease response system more thorough and comprehensive."

To this end, Seoul will first subdivide the infectious disease response stages into seven levels and respond more proactively at each stage. Currently, the central government's infectious disease response stages are divided into four levels: Interest, Caution, Alert, and Serious. Seoul plans to split the 'Alert' and 'Serious' stages into two levels each, creating Alert Level 1 and Alert Level 2, Serious Level 1 and Serious Level 2, and a Recovery stage.

Additionally, by the second half of this year, Seoul plans to establish an infectious disease research center and an epidemiological investigation office to unify infectious disease research and policy implementation, thereby strengthening the local government's independent control tower function.

In particular, to dramatically strengthen the public medical system to overcome large-scale group infection incidents like those in Daegu and Gyeongbuk even if they occur in Seoul, Seoul plans to establish infectious disease specialized centers at four of its 12 municipal hospitals: Seoul Medical Center, Boramae Hospital, Seonam Hospital, and Seobuk Hospital.

Seoul will also promote the relocation of the National Medical Center to the site of the former military hospital proposed recently by the city, and simultaneously establish the affiliated 'National Infectious Disease Specialized Hospital,' entrusting infectious disease response functions not only for Seoul but for the entire country.

Along with this, to expand public medical personnel, Seoul is reviewing various options such as acquiring the failed Seonam University College of Medicine previously pursued by the city and joint establishment with other local governments, and is pushing for the establishment of a public medical school at the local government level. Seoul has begun reviewing the former fire academy site in Seocho-gu as a candidate location to build the 'Seoul Disaster Management Resource Integrated Storage Warehouse' to stockpile and manage quarantine supplies at the city level.

Seoul also views it as crucial to preemptively check and block 'silent transmission' by asymptomatic infected individuals to prevent the resurgence of COVID-19. From today, it will discuss practical operational directions such as the method for selecting groups for proactive testing through the Proactive Testing Committee.

Mayor Park explained, "To enable immediate response in the event of a second resurgence of COVID-19, we plan to expand public screening clinics from the current 46 locations to more than 100, and also expand mobile specimen collection teams targeting nursing home residents with limited mobility and severely disabled individuals."

He continued, "Legal and institutional improvements related to the relocation of the National Medical Center, the establishment of the National Infectious Disease Specialized Hospital, and the establishment of a public medical school will be separately discussed with the central government," emphasizing, "We will further strengthen the rapid and transparent quarantine and citizen participation quarantine system demonstrated during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak and the recent COVID-19 response, advancing toward becoming a 'standard city for infectious disease response' leading the world."

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