Gangdong-gu, Full Effort to Support Daycare Centers to Block COVID-19

Implemented Disinfection Activities at Daycare Centers, Providing Antibacterial Films and Attached Thermometers, Fully Committed to Maintaining Clean Daycare Centers Amid COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), daycare centers are currently closed.

Amid this situation, Gangdong-gu (District Mayor Lee Jeong-hoon) is putting all its efforts into creating a safe childcare environment through various support measures and quarantine activities for daycare centers.

In February, when the mask shortage occurred due to COVID-19, the district office and the Gangdong-gu Saemaeul Women's Association joined forces to produce 1,500 cloth masks for children and delivered them to daycare centers. Since then, they have supported COVID-19 response quarantine supplies including 1.6 million masks, 40,000 hand sanitizers, and 600 thermometers to ensure the health and safety of infants and childcare staff at daycare centers.

In particular, in June, the district supported 360,000 “stick-on thermometers” for about 12,000 infants and toddlers to use for two months at daycare centers.

The stick-on thermometer is a sticker-type device attached to the skin under the ear, neck, or wrist, which changes yellow at 37.5℃, offering high accuracy and allowing easy detection of fever symptoms in infants and toddlers who have difficulty expressing themselves.

Additionally, in March, the district invested about 40 million won in contingency funds to conduct two rounds of large-scale professional disinfection at all 258 daycare centers. In April, to prevent cross-infection of COVID-19, antibacterial films were provided for installation on daycare center entrance doors, handles, stair railings, and switches.

Even during the closure of daycare centers, the district is steadily providing emergency childcare services for families where both parents work and cannot care for infants and toddlers at home. The emergency childcare utilization rate at Gangdong-gu daycare centers has risen from 10% in February to 85% as of July, showing high usage.

As the number of children using emergency childcare increases, quarantine measures to prevent infection are being strengthened, and children not using emergency childcare are being monitored for their home care situations.

Lee Jeong-hoon, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, stated, “Even amid COVID-19, we will not let our guard down and will mobilize all available resources to do our best in COVID-19 quarantine to provide a childcare environment that is safe, trustworthy, and ensures the safety of infants, toddlers, and childcare staff.”

Gangdong-gu is conducting on-site inspections of meal hygiene and overall safety at daycare centers to prevent food poisoning, which is common in summer.

Also, considering the increased need for disinfection, the district is fully committed to summer safety management at daycare centers by investing about 90 million won in contingency funds to support the purchase of disinfection equipment (indoor disinfectors) so that daycare centers can conduct disinfection on their own.

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