All Mapo District Office Staff Mobilized as On-Site Epidemiological Investigators...

Mapo-gu, First in the Nation to Operate 'On-site Epidemiological Investigation Team' with All Staff...Sharing Epidemiological Investigation Techniques and Cases with All Employees, Non-face-to-face Online Education...Yu District Mayor's Executive Secretary and Driver Also Participate as Epidemiological Investigators

Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo District, is driving himself to work as both the reporter and his executive secretary have become quarantine epidemiological investigators.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Since mid-last month, confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) have surged mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area, including Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon. The Mapo-gu Public Health Center screening clinic, which used to receive about 100 visitors per day on average, has rapidly increased to about 300-400 visitors daily over the past two weeks. Additionally, the entire process of epidemiological investigations to trace confirmed patients' movements has been overloaded, causing delays in the disclosure of confirmed patients' movement paths.

For this reason, since the 24th of last month, Mapo-gu has been promptly informing residents of the occurrence status of COVID-19 cases in the area through disaster text messages, the district office website, and blogs.

To prevent potential quarantine gaps due to the surge in epidemiological investigation workload and to concentrate all administrative efforts on preventing the spread of COVID-19, Mapo-gu has become the first in the nation to conduct online training on epidemiological investigation methods for all employees. Based on this, the district has begun preparing a system where all staff can be deployed for on-site epidemiological investigations in case of emergencies.

This initiative started from the idea of Mapo-gu Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun, considering the severe shortage of epidemiological investigators due to the recent rapid increase in confirmed cases and the growing fatigue among staff, aiming to share the workload among all employees and strengthen the on-site COVID-19 response capability.

Mayor Yoo said, “Our staff work wearing uncomfortable protective suits in this heat, placing ice packs on their heads while working, and they are busy checking CCTV under the scorching sun to trace confirmed patients' movements. As the district mayor, shouldn’t I also lend some support?” expressing his intention to actively participate.

Accordingly, since the 1st of this month, Mayor Yoo’s driver and executive secretary have also been assigned to be deployed for on-site epidemiological investigations in emergencies and participated in the epidemiological investigation work conducted on the 1st.

Mayor Yoo stated, “Even a sheet of white paper is easier to lift with help. If we all make small concessions and support each other, we can overcome this crisis.” He added that until COVID-19 subsides, he will travel alone without his driver and secretary to more carefully oversee district affairs.

Until now, 18 epidemiological investigators at the Mapo-gu Public Health Center have taken turns conducting on-site investigations of confirmed patients' movements. However, due to the recent continuous sporadic and simultaneous group infections, the existing workforce has been unable to keep up with the increasing number of epidemiological investigations, significantly slowing down the completion speed of investigations.

In response, the public health center received support from the district office with 38 additional epidemiological investigation personnel to intensify efforts in epidemiological investigations and contact tracing, but this too has faced difficulties due to the large number of confirmed cases.

Moreover, as confirmed cases rapidly increased over the past two weeks mainly in the metropolitan area, in-depth epidemiological investigation data such as credit card usage records and mobile phone satellite location system (GPS) information have been indefinitely delayed, making the role of on-site epidemiological investigations conducted by local governments even more critical.

The on-site epidemiological investigation team acts as problem solvers who track and piece together all hidden puzzles based only on the basic information of time and movement paths recalled by confirmed patients. They dispatch to the field, check each closed-circuit television (CCTV) installed along the movement paths to verify the facts, and find all contacts that might otherwise be missed.

Therefore, Mapo-gu plans to conduct online non-face-to-face training focused on epidemiological investigation techniques and actual cases for all employees, preparing in advance so that any Mapo-gu public official can act as an on-site epidemiological investigator in the event of large-scale group infections or similar situations. To this end, the district will operate a dedicated responsibility system for on-site epidemiological investigations by department, organizing investigation teams in pairs (two-person teams) to operate field investigations more swiftly and flexibly.

Meanwhile, to proactively respond to the government's strengthened Level 2 social distancing and Seoul City's “Ten Million Citizens Pause Week,” all employees began alternating telecommuting from the 1st to the 11th. The district plans to actively utilize telecommuting to disperse office density and actively participate in social distancing to focus on COVID-19 prevention.

Additionally, in May, the district built a new screening clinic equipped with the latest facilities such as full-section negative pressure automatic control devices and walking-through testing booths, ensuring that residents can safely and quickly receive tests even during heatwaves and heavy rains, responding thoroughly. However, since the screening clinic operates on weekends as well and confirmed cases continue to occur steadily regardless of weekdays or weekends, public health center staff are accumulating work fatigue due to working without holidays.

Mapo-gu Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun said, “Regarding infectious diseases directly related to residents' lives and health, we must respond as thoroughly as possible to cut off the spread of COVID-19.” He added, “The district will concentrate all available administrative power on preventing the spread of COVID-19 to restore peaceful daily life to residents, so we ask residents to actively participate in social distancing and comply with daily quarantine rules.”

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