22 COVID-19 Cases Confirmed at Wangseong Church... Gwanak District Office Staff Inspect Religious Facilities Without Weekend Breaks

On the 27th-28th, over 1,500 Gwanak-gu Office staff conduct intensive on-site inspections of high-risk and religious facilities... Corrective actions for non-compliance with quarantine rules, disinfection across all areas, and requests to refrain from religious small gatherings

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] All staff of Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) will conduct intensive on-site inspections targeting high-risk facilities and religious facilities over the weekend to prevent the occurrence of group infections of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Following the outbreak of a COVID-19 cluster infection at the large church Wangseong Church, the district held an emergency countermeasure meeting on the 26th and launched a special emergency work system for all staff to conduct on-site inspections of high-risk facilities and religious facilities, as well as support work at screening clinics.

The inspection targets include ▲482 religious facilities ▲308 singing practice rooms (including coin karaoke) ▲172 PC rooms ▲284 establishments such as entertainment bars, nightclubs, and colatechs ▲70 indoor group exercise facilities ▲233 door-to-door sales and direct promotion centers ▲124 billiard halls and bowling alleys ▲17 comic book rooms and book cafes ▲15 gikwons (private study rooms) ▲11 wedding halls and buffets ▲4 foreigner-dense facilities, totaling 1,720 locations.

On the 27th, the district organized all staff into inspection teams to visit various high-risk multi-use facilities on-site and checked compliance with COVID-19 prevention rules according to facility-specific checklists, including ▲designation of quarantine managers ▲facility disinfection ▲provision of hand sanitizers ▲mask-wearing by workers and users ▲visitor temperature checks ▲visitor list creation ▲and social distancing.

In particular, for singing practice rooms, entertainment and danran bars, colatechs, hunting pochas, indoor group exercise, and buffets, compliance with gathering restrictions was inspected, while for coin karaoke rooms and direct sales promotion centers, adherence to gathering prohibition orders was the focus of inspection.

Additionally, employees of the local community centers conducted comprehensive disinfection activities in collaboration with professional organizations at facilities within the area, and visited restaurants, beauty salons, and bathhouses outside of high-risk facilities to promote COVID-19 prevention guidelines.

On the 28th, all staff will conduct intensive on-site inspections of 482 religious facilities including churches, cathedrals, and temples.

For churches, inspection teams will visit the site before worship begins to check compliance with strengthened quarantine rules and the suspension of contact face-to-face small group meetings and group meals such as choirs and praise teams.

Also, according to the checklist, all congregants will be thoroughly checked for compliance with infection prevention rules such as ▲temperature checks ▲mask-wearing ▲hand sanitizing ▲social distancing ▲and list creation, and any non-compliance will be immediately reported to the church officials for corrective action.

On the 26th, Gwanak-gu held an emergency meeting with the Gwanak-gu Christian Federation and the Gwanak-gu Parish Council, converting Sunday on-site worship to online worship for about 110 large churches with more than 100 congregants.

Furthermore, following the COVID-19 cluster infection at Wangseong Church, a mobile screening clinic was installed in front of the church, conducting emergency COVID-19 tests for about 1,700 congregants, their families, and acquaintances.

As of 9 a.m. on the 28th, COVID-19 tests have been completed for 1,813 people, with 22 confirmed cases related to Wangseong Church: 15 in Gwanak-gu and 7 in other regions.

Park Jun-hee, Mayor of Gwanak-gu, stated, “To prevent the spread of COVID-19, please refrain from visiting various multi-use facilities including small church gatherings, and strictly follow quarantine rules such as wearing masks when going outside.”

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