Seodaemun-gu Offers Free COVID-19 Testing for Elderly Welfare Facility Workers

All 500 Staff Members Working at Every Daycare Center and Nursing Facility in the Region

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Seodaemun-gu (Mayor Moon Seok-jin) is conducting free screening tests for facility workers to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in elderly welfare facilities.

The target group includes about 500 workers at all municipal, district, and private daycare centers (19 locations) and nursing facilities (18 locations) within the district. Testing will be conducted from the 17th of this month until the 3rd of next month.

The district prepared the tests out of concern that if COVID-19 occurs in these facilities, it would pose a serious health threat to the elderly, as well as cause temporary closure of the facilities and paralysis of elderly care services.

To ensure no disruption in elderly care, facility workers will visit the Seodaemun-gu Public Health Center screening clinic in shifts according to a set schedule to receive testing.

Testing will be conducted for all workers regardless of symptoms to screen even asymptomatic individuals.

After testing municipal and district ‘attached daycare facilities,’ testing will be extended to private facility workers.

Additionally, elderly users of the facilities who show suspected COVID-19 symptoms such as fever and cough will also be tested concurrently.

Prior to this testing, the district has been supporting elderly welfare facilities with masks, hand sanitizers, thermometers, and regularly conducting facility disinfection.

Moon Seok-jin, Mayor of Seodaemun-gu, stated, “This testing is being promoted to prevent infection of the elderly by facility workers and to enable prompt response in case of confirmed cases,” and added, “We ask for the active cooperation of all related parties to ensure smooth testing.”

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