"Change the Calculation Method for Community Infections," Sharp Criticism from Busan Gijang County Governor

County Governor Oh Gyuseok: Scientific Basis for 'Infection Occurrence Site' Rather Than Residence-Based 'Community Infection' Calculation
Classification System into 3 Types: ① Overseas Entry Infection ② Infection Outside Region ③ Infection Within Regi

Busan Gijang County Governor Oh Gyu-seok is directing disinfection efforts on the 17th.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] “It is more scientific to include the actual places where infections occurred in the calculation of the ‘number of community infection cases.’”

On the 29th, Oh Gyu-seok, the mayor of Busan’s Gijang-gun, drew attention by strongly raising the issue that the current method of calculating infection numbers based on the confirmed patients’ registered addresses is flawed.

He argued that instead of confirming and calculating community infection numbers based on the actual residence of COVID-19 confirmed patients, the calculation should be based on the city, county, or district where the confirmed patient had contact and where the infection actually occurred.

Mayor Oh emphasized, “Just as confirmed cases are classified as domestic or overseas infections based on the place of infection, community infection cases should also be classified and confirmed as ‘out-of-area infection cases’ and ‘within-area infection cases.’”

The systematic classification method he proposes is divided into three categories: ‘overseas-entry infection confirmed cases,’ ‘infection confirmed cases outside the region (city, county, district),’ and ‘infection confirmed cases within the region (city, county, district).’

This approach would provide more systematic and scientific data for establishing quarantine policies not only for local governments and metropolitan governments but also for the central government.

He argued that if a person ‘A’ registered in area ‘Ga’ is infected in area ‘Na,’ counting the community infection case in area ‘Ga’ does not help in establishing systematic quarantine measures.

Recently, a person related to the Haeundae Oncheon Center, who resides in Gijang-gun and was confirmed COVID-19 positive at 7:50 a.m. on the 28th (Busan case number 284), commuted by private car.

Contact tracing found no contacts within Gijang-gun. Also, one family member of the Haeundae Oncheon Center-related case tested negative at 6:50 a.m. on the 29th.

This confirmed case was classified as a community infection case of Gijang-gun, not Haeundae-gu.

Mayor Oh believes that classifying community infections based on the place of infection, as is done when publicly disclosing infection sites and focusing disinfection efforts, is more scientific.

Currently, under the classification system that assigns case numbers primarily based on residence, Gijang-gun has a total of six COVID-19 confirmed cases.

These include three overseas-entry confirmed cases who reside in Gijang-gun and were infected abroad, and three community infection cases who reside in Gijang-gun but were infected in nearby cities outside Gijang-gun.

If the ‘Oh Gyu-seok classification method’ were applied, there would be no COVID-19 patients confirmed to have been infected within Gijang-gun to date.

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