Gyeonggi-do Urgently Provides Air-Conditioned Sample Collection Booths and Containers

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province is supporting walk-through specimen collection booths equipped with air conditioning and rest areas to improve the working environment for public health center screening clinic workers who are exhausted from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing heat.

The province announced that it will use a total of 2.9 billion KRW from the disaster management fund to provide 33 walk-through specimen collection booths to 17 public health centers and 26 air-conditioned containers to 16 public health centers.

As of the 10th, the province has completed budget support ranging from 50 million KRW to 150 million KRW per public health center.

The walk-through specimen collection booths, shaped like phone booths, allow people who visit screening clinics on foot to have their specimens collected. To prevent infection, microphones and speakers are installed, and sterilizers and other equipment are also provided.

Previously, specimens were often collected in tents installed inside public health center screening clinics.

The air-conditioned containers will be used as rest areas for public health center screening clinic workers.

The province explained that this measure reflects Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung's emphasis on "definite compensation for working public officials."

Earlier, on the 11th, Governor Lee sent a message of encouragement to all employees of Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center who have been working hard on long-term COVID-19 prevention efforts and decided to grant them two days of special leave.

In his message of encouragement, Governor Lee said, "Thanks to the dedication and efforts of frontline medical staff, South Korea and Gyeonggi Province have been able to effectively contain the spread of COVID-19 so far," and promised, "Going forward, Gyeonggi Province will carefully ensure that your special sacrifices receive special compensation."

Meanwhile, from the 28th of last month to the 2nd of this month, Gyeonggi Province conducted telephone interviews with 453 non-regular employees working emergency shifts at local health care institutions to assess job satisfaction and areas for improvement.

When asked about job satisfaction, 32% responded they were satisfied, while 30% were dissatisfied. Employees cited the following areas for improvement: ▲staff shortages ▲expansion of heating and cooling facilities, establishment of hygienic environments ▲excessive workload, lack of rest time ▲work system (systematization of work distribution, creation and unification of guidelines) ▲insufficient allowance payments ▲work conditions (improvement of non-regular worker treatment) ▲material support (necessary supplies, meals, snacks, etc.).

The province plans to discuss the survey results with 31 cities and counties to develop improvement measures.

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